Aspen County

"Why don't you just face it?" Monique asks, sounding winded. "You can't defeat me."

Time seems to have stopped in here despite our growing exhaustion. Even Monique is growing weak and obviously needs a break. The foggy haze that covers the windows in the door doesn't help, and I sigh at the thought that we could have been in here for only a couple of hours or a couple of days. This is worse than when I was beaten and starved in Damien's mansion.

But we're still fighting with as much determination as we had from the beginning. Louve launches herself at the entity with a grunt, but Monique flicks her wrist and launches my sister at the wall above my head. I catch her as she falls and gently lower her to the ground. Once she's safe, I hold my hand out in front of me, and Monique is dragged across the floor to me, kicking and huffing. Once I have her within my clutches, I try beginning the chant that Keene taught us, but she swings her foot up and kicks me where it really hurts. I yelp in pain and fall to the floor. Monique backs up to the center of the room as Louve recovers and slowly begins approaching her, blood at the corner of her mouth.

"Once a loser, always a loser," Monique taunts. "You aren't going to win, Louve."

"Yes, I will. I am going to beat you, Monique." My sister closes her eyes and tries to attack Monique, but she sees it coming and pulls another trick out of her bottomless bag.

"Louve, look out!" I call, my voice cracking

Her eyes shoot open, and she launches herself out of the way, tumbling as a huge van speeds towards her. It looks slightly faded, just like the image of our parents did when we first visited the dome in my mind, but it crashes against a smaller car in the center of the room, just like that night when I was eight and was helpless to stop my parents' death. Monique gazes on cynically as Louve and I watch horrified as Damien's father gets out of his van and throws our mother's door open. He drags her out of the car, but before he can do anything to harm her, Louve snarls at him and Transforms into a wolf.

She bounds through the grainy memory, and it dissipates like mist, leaving only the shadow of my mother falling to the ground. She launches herself at Monique who, having been shocked to see Louve actually manage to Transform despite her anger and the fact that this is all still technically a dream, doesn't see the attack coming in the least.

Louve pins the entity down, gnashing her fangsthreateningly, and I sit up. Having been able to will something into the room in the past, I focus all my efforts on trying to force iron handcuffs to appear on Monique's wrists, and she's as shocked as I am when they actually appear. I get up and approach the pair, Louve still holding Monique down under her body weight.

Monique visibly begins to panic, and she violently tosses Louve off of her. The cuffs stay locked in place, but she still manages to summon another image: Damien's father standing over Ryder and shooting him in the chest. Blind with rage, Louve once again throws herself at Monique, this time digging her teeth into the entity to keep her pinned. I don't wast any of the time Louve buys for me.

"'Vile demon of Prophecies past, your wretched power shall end at last; upon this New Moon you shall be enslaved, by those whose lives' control you have craved. Chaos will no longer be caused at your whim, and you shall no longer force us to sin; you are bound for eternity to rot in her mind, and it is your fate that shall upon her will be twined.'"

Monique's eyes pinch closed as she releases a blood-curdling shriek of agony. Louve's ears fold as her tail tucks between her legs. She tries to back away from Monique but is held to the entity by an invisible bond. Louve whimpers, and Transforms into some strange half-form. She has a human body with pointy ears, an elongated snout, claws where her finger and toe-nails should be, and fur creating patterns up her body. Monique does the same thing, the fur covering her being black unlike Louve's burgundy, and both girls scream in a morphed cry that sounds somewhere between a howl and a shriek.

White light streams out of Monique's chest and seems to filter into Louve's screaming mouth. As it does, Monique seems to grow paler until she closes her eyes and stops screaming. The stream of light stops, and Louve's mouth closes. Exhausted, she collapses on top of the other girl. I rush over to my sister, but she's out cold. I kiss her forehead and will my body to awaken.

When my eyes open, I'm on the cot, my stomach cut deep from when my body tried to follow the motions happening in my mind. I lift my head on a weak neck and groan as excess pressure is forced on my healing stomach. My head crashes back onto the cot as my arms drag up to try to free my body from the cot's confines.

Weak and exhausted, I give up and allow my heavy arms to slide back off of the bed and dangle uselessly at my sides. I hear the doors open as rapid footsteps approach, and then Keene is there, gazing at me and looking so relieved that I'm okay. He wipes my damp hair off of my forehead and kisses it before hurriedly freeing me. He gently pulls me up and hugs me, but I'm unable to lift my arms to return the gesture. I gaze over his shoulder at Louve and notice that she's still in that strange half-form that she was in during the dream. She's not even awake, and Ryder looks terrified as he quickly undoes the strap around her waist.

"Louve?" I croak. I forget about my exhaustion and struggle to scramble off of the bed and get to my sister, but Keene holds me back.

He helps me lie back on the bed, ignoring my protests. "She'll be fine. The fact that she survived is a miracle—placing Monique in her mind means that everything hit her with much more force than it did upon you. Let me get you back home and take care of you. Ryder will take care of Louve, and Grandmother will be there waiting to help."

My body is weak and drained, so all I can do is nod and trust that Keene will take care of everything. Unable to stay awake any longer, I give into the exhaustion and allow sleep to consume me.