There was something wrong. 

Head spinning, Anya sat up. The blurred mess that was her room twisted further away from her, falling away from her outstretched hands. The tattoo-like markings that littered her skin glinted in the dimming light, telling her that indeed, she had a body. 

Then why did she feel so weightless? 

The feeling of simply floating along, alone and helpless along a pitch-black sky overtook her senses. Closing her misty eyes, Anya prayed that this would never end. One could argue that eternal solitude was the worst way to spend the remaining days of your life but to Anya, that was her sanctuary. Her one remaining thought that kept her from going insane. Little did she know, she had already crossed that boundary years back and was wading in unfamiliar territory. 

[i]Thump.[/i]

The feeling of her back landing on the floor sparked a sharp spike of pain to run up her body, ending at her throbbing temple. Momentarily, the pain spread like wildfire through the rest of her body, a dull ache that made Anya grit her teeth and stop herself from crying out. She turned her unfocused gaze up towards the ceiling, looking for sort of solace, only to be met with an ominous darkness gathering in the corners of the ceiling and spreading across the walls like a disease. That’s what it was – a disease. These abhorrent shadows were always like a disease, grabbing at whatever they could and reducing them to nothing. And Anya had been running from them from day one. A whimper rose to her throat, a panicked expression overtaking her features. 

Today would be the day they got her.

Rooted to the spot and unable to move, Anya barely registered the roar of fire. It wasn’t fire of her own making – no, it was a creation of the form sitting right inside the white-hot flames. As the flames got closer and closer, Anya suddenly felt the ability to move and she immediately scrambled back, away from the figure. He was back, the one entity that wouldn’t leave her alone. 

[i]Go away.[/i]

It opened its pitch-black eyes that had not even a hint of a white sclera and smiled, the malicious grin spanning the entire width of his face. [i]“Welcome back.”[/i] The raspy whisper filled her ears and a few tears escaped Anya’s eyes. As if on cue, whispers broke out from an invisible audience, not quieting even when Anya screamed “Shut up!”. 

There was no escaping it. She vaguely registered the shadowy tendril reaching the hand that was extended behind her, wrapping itself around her wrist. The burning sensation started immediately, snatching a scream from Anya’s throat. She ripped her arm away and scooted towards the center of the room, away from the shadows and closer to the fire. She had no choice – the fire burned its way closer and closer, heating her skin to a rather uncomfortable degree every second. 

[i]“Bad choice.”[/i] The demon announced, his deep laugh drowning out the whispers. [i]“Let the games begin.”[/i] Anya found herself unable to move again and, seated on the scorching hot floor of the room, could only watch as the flames swallowed her feet. And then the screams began. 
---
As she stood outside the door of her assigned patient’s room, Farrah dutifully ignored the screams from within. This particular ward was fairly soundproof yet the Dreamweaver’s voice continuously broke through and echoed down the hallway. She flipped through the patient’s file, reading through it as carefully as Buck had requested. As her eyes landed on the last line, she shook her head and sunk her hand into her scrubs’ pocket where two syringes of Anya’s medication lay. 

[i]Do not under ANY circumstances look this patient in the eye.[/i] The last line repeated itself in her mind as she swiped her key card into the slot and the door automatically opened. Farrah slowly opened the door, intent on not disturbing the non-Earth patient as the file had specified and frankly, she didn’t feel like fighting a fire. Closing the door behind her, Farrah stood quietly by the door and watched the humanoid Dreamweaver writhe in agony. 

Several minutes later, as the patient abruptly sat up, eyes wide and brimming with tears, Farrah barely flinched. She approached the patient, already impatient with having waited for so long. “Hanneli, I’m your nurse, Farrah.” She said in a soft voice. She didn’t reach out to touch the girl and stayed out of the girl’s immediate line of sight just in case she freaked out. “How are you feeling this morning?” 

It took several long seconds for the girl to respond. She didn’t move from her position on her bed, eyes fixated on the same spot on the far wall. “There’s someone there.” Ignoring the nurse, Anya continued to stare at the wall. Her voice was light and cheerful, as if pointing out a flaw on a toddler’s artwork. She spoke in a mix of her native Dreamweaver language and English, somewhat confused between the two and inserting random Dreamweaver words among her sentences. 

Farrah turned and scrutinized the area where Anya was pointing at, her navy-blue eyes scanning the wall repeatedly but seeing no-one there. The possibility of a patient with the capability to render themselves invisible was impossible at Osmond’s so the only plausible explanation was that Anya was hallucination. “There’s no one there, dear.” Farrah said as gently as she could manage. 

“No, there’s someone there. He’s sitting right there. Can’t you see him? He’s looking at you like you’re his next meal.” Anya answered, her voice drifting away dreamily, clearly disregarding Farrah’s words. The nurse frowned and walked around the bed to face the Dreamweaver. Anya had morphed into something in-between Dreamweaver and human somewhere in the middle of her nightmare episode, creating a weird mix of feathers and glowing markings. The blonde nurse bent down slightly to be on eye-level with Anya and took her face in for the first time. It was fairly human, with the same markings taking up a side of her face. She could’ve been considered some kind of unearthly beauty yet her weird words overpowered everything else. 

“The room is empty save for us. Are you sure you can see?” Farrah asked, looking into Anya’s cloudy eyes. The girl seemed blind to the entire world, piquing Farrah’s interest. Her psychic block could ward off nearly every mental attack so she took the risk and studies Anya’s strange eyes. 

As if she’d flipped a switch, Anya turned towards Farrah and locked eyes with the nurse. At first, Farrah felt no different, only slightly uncomfortable at the intensity of Anya’s stare. The girl really was crazy, she decided. Then the unthinkable happened. Her vision blurred, slowly twisting away from the shape-shifter until all Farrah could see was a deep black, only the faintest colors filtering through. And even then, that aspect was rapidly being taken away from her. 

“…I don’t know. Can [i]you[/i] see?” Anya’s voice broke through the tense silence, sickly sweet but Farrah could detect a hint of mocking underneath. She frowned and glared at the girl as her vision returned, blocking the girl’s mental attack. Anya smiled in response and turned back towards the wall. “He says hi. Do you want to say hi?” 

In response, Farrah stabbed the syringe into Anya’s arm, reducing the girl to a slightly sluggish mess. Another stab followed from the other syringe and she heard Anya mumble something about whether she always went around stabbing people. Anya’s eyes immediately unfocused further as the medication worked its magic, sedating her just enough to bring her back down to reality and making her eyes focus a bit more. Once she was satisfied the Dreamweaver was fairly normal by Osmond’s standards, she spoke, “Enough. Get dressed so we can go down to the cafeteria.” Farrah tossed the girl a set of royal purple scrubs and turned towards the door, waiting to go down to the ground floor. The faint rustle of material behind her told her that Anya was nearly done changing and she swiped the keycard through the slot, opening the door once more. The nurse turned and motioned for Anya to follow her.

One uncomfortable ride later, Farrah and Anya made their way to the cafeteria. Once at the double doors, Farrah waved Anya in and motioned towards the counter of food. “Go eat and socialize. No doubt it’ll do you some good.” 

Anya smiled in response and her hand shot out to grip Farrah’s. Farrah momentarily tried to yank her hand away, unsure of what the patient was doing. Did she have some unmentioned ability? However, it all proved to be needless concerns as Anya vigorously shook her hand, dragging her entire arm up and down. “Thank you, nurse. The man says hello by the way. He thinks you’re pretty.” With that, Anya skipped into the cafeteria, grabbing a tray along the way. 

The man behind the counter recognized her instantly despite her human appearance and handed her a small plate of glowing blue biscuits. Anya thanked him with smile and loaded the rest of her tray with human food. Human food did little for her different internal organs but it was tasty nonetheless, and the stack of pancakes on her plate grew. The blue biscuits, on the other hand, tasted like one variety of berries that grew on her homeworld, supplying her with the necessary nutrients that this world lacked. 

She turned and, tray in hand, approached the first ground of people she saw. A sullen young man and a girl. “Kitty!” Anya called out to herself, her voice fairly quiet despite the childish excitement in her voice. She skipped over to the table, and set her tray down. Without even bothering with introductions, she addressed the cat-lady. “Can I pull your tail? It’s so pretty!” She asked dreamily, offering the cat-lady a smile. Not waiting for an answer, she spoke again. “My name’s Anya.” It took considerable effort to speak in full English, as the other patients obviously weren’t equipped with a translator as Farrah had. Her words came out slightly slurred, giving away the fact that English wasn’t her native language. Nevertheless, it got the point across which was enough for Anya.