Sibyl walked through the pitch darkness of the school. She didn’t know how to deliberately transform so she had not light to guide her through the hallways. At the windows into the school there was sometimes faint beams of light coming from the street. She used those to orient herself and continued toward the stairs. Her main guide however was the feeling of the two things above her. One was the Shadowed Soul. That dark feeling that she had felt during the dream remained and she could guide her path using that.
The other was also strong yet weak in comparison to the Shadowed Soul. She could tell that that one was Luna. When Luna had placed her hand on Sibyl shoulder back at her apartment she remembered the feeling of that. Sibyl felt small compared to both of those presences. Finally she found the stairs in the darkness and began walking up them. She wanted to go quicker but because she couldn’t see she had to go up them one at a time.
Finally she reached the landing leading up to the roof. She could feel the two of them up there. There was a light pouring through the crack in the door. Sibyl ran up the last few steps and grabbed the door. She pulled at it but it refused to move under her weight.
There was a melodic laugh that filled the air and filled her with dread. “I’m sorry child but I am entertaining myself with Luna. Please go and play elsewhere.” Sibyl felt the floor shift under her and the stairs behind her seemed to twist in plain pulling up. It was a noushious feeling like the whole world was turning upside down. The light slide up from the door toward the ceiling like she was in a giant elevator room.
Finally the motion got too much for her and she collapsed onto the ground. She held firm to the ground while the room rocked around her. After what seemed like endless torture the room stopped moving. Sibyl crawled toward the wall which she used to pull herself up. She was still dizzy from the entire experience. Once she got her feet she looked toward the door again.
It was different. In fact everything was different. The stairs she had climbed up to reach this place were now leading up. The door in front of her was an older wooden door. More disturbing then that was that she could no longer feel them. The Shadowed Soul and Luna had disappeared from her senses. The she realized the next strange thing. There were no lights and she could tell that it was dark but she could also make out the things close to her.
She looked down at herself and saw the faint blue glow emanating from herself. She was still wearing her normal cloths but somehow they were glowing just bright enough for her to make out some of her surroundings. There was a moment of hesitation and fear as Sibyl tried to figure out what to do. She no longer knew the right way to the monster or to Luna. She was by herself and alone in a place that she didn’t know.
Sibyl gritted her teeth, trying to drive away the uncertainty. She took a few steps forward and pushed open the door. She let out a quick yelp of surprise as cold water poured from the door over her. It pushed her back a few feet and when she recovered she was knee deep in cold black water.
She stepped through to doorway to find herself in empty blackness. There was nothing, just the rippling of dark waters for the few feet that she could see. The wall of the doorway stretched in either direction out of sight and she could not spot anything else in that reach of water. Sibyl took a few more steps forward before she finally made out a wall, but one that was unlike those she had seen before.
It was a rough stone wall which was mostly collapsed. Only the portion near her was still in tack, standing only four feet high. It was badly mortared and seemed to have been made in an age where that was popular. As Sibyl stepped nearer the wall she heard something move above her and a long inky black bird landed on the wall. It peered at Sibyl with black eyes which were somehow darker then the bird and the darkness around it.
“Traveler from the plane of light, turn back. This place is not for the likes of you. Turn back.” The voice was a whisper that came from all around Sibyl but she was certain that is was the bird that had spoke.
“Turn back were. I am looking for my friend Luna. Please tell me how to get to her.” Said Sibyl. She felt a little strange speaking with a bird but she had already spoken with a cat so she figured it must be alright.
“The one you seek is not here. You must return to your world to save her. No go before you attract the attention of something less kind then me.”
“How? How do I get back to my world?” Said Sibyl.
“You are already there girl. You only need to realize it. Now turn around and return. This is no place for you.” Then the bird spread its wings and flapped off into the darkness. Sibyl didn’t know where to go but off into the darkness with no idea of where to go seemed like a bad idea.
Sibyl turned around and was at first scared that she had become lost but when she walked a couple more steps she could see the wall and the door again. She stepped back through the door and pushed it closed again. It was hard work because of the water but she eventually managed to get it closed. Once that had happened she moved toward the stairs and began climbing up them. After the first few steps she was no longer knee deep in water.
She followed the stairs up. While the looked like the stairs in her school she could tell that she wasn’t in the school. At the top of each flight was nothing, just more stairs heading even high up. She walked up flight after flight, climbing higher and higher on the seemingly endless staircase. Finally at the top of one of the flights there was a window. There was faint light streaming in from the window and she walked closer to it so that she could look through it. It looked out over a vast drop which looked down into a street.
She recognized the street. It was the street outside of the school. Judging from the angle she would have had to have been in a tower high above the school but she knew that no such tower existed. Down in the street far below she could make out the small form of a cat. He was alone standing just outside the gates to the school. He just stood there.
Sibyl reached out toward the window but when her fingers got to where the glass would have been she felt solid wall. The entire image rippled and then dissolved beneath her fingers. There was nothing but wall where she had touched now. Not understanding what it meant Sibyl returned to climbing the stairs. They seemed endless in number and she was afraid that she could never reach the top of them.
Then finally there was a door at the top of one of the flights of stairs. It stood there unassuming but blocking her path. She reached out to touch it. She was worried that it would ripple and disappear before her figures and leave more stairs for her to climb. Instead her fingers pressed down against rough wood.
She was about to feel relief when she could feel something from the other side of the door. The presences of the Shadowed Soul and Luna were once again noticeable once she had touched the door. When she removed her fingers the feeling faded again.
Sibyl looked down the stair and couldn’t help but wonder aloud, “Where is this?” However she didn’t have much time to ponder the question because Luna needed her help. So Sibyl pulled open the door and stepped through. There was a moment of dislocation and she found herself back in the stairway just before entering the roof.
Quite a but had changed since she was last there. There was the other girl, Joy standing near the edge of the stairs. She held a sword made of scaled green. She was using it to chop down black shadowy forms that will moving up the stairs toward her. They were fast and numerous but anytime one of the got close to Joy she sword zipped out and cleaved it in half. By the time the movement was over it was darting to attack yet another one of the shadow monsters.
One of the shadowy monsters managed to slip past Joy. It loomed behind her and Joy didn’t notice. Sibyl yelled, “Watch out, behind you.” That short warning was all that Joy and Ouroboros needed. The sword danced in a circle while Joy turned. The shadow dispirited into a vanishing darkness. There were a couple more moments while Joy finished dispatching the remaining shadows and then everything was quiet.
Joy then turned toward Sibyl and gasped. “Oh, no, I’m so sorry. I thought I stopped all of them from getting to you. Please forgive me.” She sounded terrified and upset and Sibyl didn’t initially notice why Joy was acting like that. Then she looked down and realized that she was standing on her own body. Her legs were passing through her body and everything.
“I’m, I’m..” Sibyl stuttered.
“A ghost.” Whispered Joy in fear. She sunk to her knees in defeat, Ouroboros clattering to the floor next to her.
Sibyl was about to share in the same dismay of her own death when she noticed the small rise and fall of her own chest, the one of the body near her feet, “No, wait. I seem to still be breathing.” She knelt and looked herself in the face. It was a bit bizarre but she was certain now. “I am still alive.”
“What, that…” Joy moved over toward the collapsed form of Sibyl and checked for herself. “Your right, your still breathing. Then,” She looked up at Sibyl’s blue tinted form, “Then that is happening. You are this girl right, Luna said that your name was Sibyl.”
Sibyl nodded, “Yes, I am Sibyl. However I don’t know anything more then you did. I tried to open the door and then a voice spoke to me. I remember something strange about a room full of water and a endless staircase and then I was back here.”
“Do you think you can reconnect or something?” Asked Joy, “It is really creepy that there are two of you.”
Sibyl pressed herself against herself but there was no change to either of her. “It doesn’t seem to be doing anything. I can’t think of anything else that might fix this.”
There came a voice from down the stairs, “You need not worry. It looks like a natural manifestation of your talent.” Then the Prince of the Firmament walked up the stairs. He smiled at them charmingly and raised his hand, “Hear me out. Right now your power is condensed. Seperated from your body you will be more powerful.”
Sibyl frowned at the Prince, “Who are you?”
“Just an ally. Now you must go assist Luna. She is beyond that door with the monster. I will stay here and make sure that none of the shadows follow you.” He then smiled at Sibyl, “And I will make sure that no harm comes to your body.”
Joy looked at the Prince and said, “You know Luna will probably want to give you another smack or two for yesterday.”
“Should she be in good enough condition to do that then I will welcome it.”
Joy nodded and reached out to grab the hand of the ghostly Sibyl. She was kind of surprised when she found it solid and firm. “Let’s go.” Said Joy and together they pulled at the door. It opened with a grating sound and they stepped through into the darkness on the roof.