The world was night.

Or was night the world?

The concept of night, the world, and maybe everything else confused the girl. She nodded with a slow, almost mechanical motion. She didn't know much, but her gender was one of the few truths she could cling to.

Especially whilst stranded in this dark, nightmarish dreamscape. Ashen trees twisted and contorted like curls of smoke under the dim moonlight. She somehow knew they were trees, even though they would not appear to be so to any casual observer. They almost seemed to mock her.

You are not a girl, they whispered. You are not human.

At that moment, their cynical and cruel words brought doubt into the girl's heart. She knew so little. Did she have hair? How tall was she? She didn't know, and felt so far from knowing.

I desire... to know the... truth, she thought, mentally stumbling in her own mind.

The trees. They were dark parodies of the real, green trees outside of this world of herself.

As are you, the trees taunted again. You're merely a travesty of a human being.

But it couldn't be. The girl struggled to explain how, but no words came. She simply knew it not to be true.

Trying to ignore the jeering of the world around her, she looked down at the ground. No, not ground. Cinders. Another sickening charade of the real world. She took a slow step forward and screamed as something sharp pierced through her foot as it touched the ground. Upon closer inspection, she saw that it had been a bone. A human bone.

This is... death...

Her head rigidly turned upward as the sky grew blacker and blacker. As she gazed upon the heavens, she saw the reason why. Large clouds drifted in front of the moon, effectively blocking any light it may bring.

Then the rain poured down.

This couldn't have been rain, though. Its red tint, the horrible stench, and the way it stuck to the girl's skin...

It's... blood...

But... why would the sky rain blood? This isn't normal... is it?

She shook her head in a vain attempt to clear her thoughts. Nothing made sense anymore.

Her surroundings suddenly swirled into an abalone, almost mirrored place. Gazing at her, with eyes of crimson, was a girl which she could only assume was the perfect image of herself. Clad in entirely black, she sneered. Nothing else was discernible.

You are a murderer.

That single thought suddenly forced its way into her head. It started to repeat itself, at first slowly, but it gradually grew in strength; like a pulse, it throbbed.

No... I refuse to believe that! Her own brain tried to throw it aside, but it still persisted. The mirror-girl's eyes burned into her soul, rendering her helpless. She couldn't fight it any longer, but she still would not give in.

Murderer... murderer... murderer murderer-

"No! Stop! Please stop! I give up, I give up!" she screamed on instinct, as if it were to stop the visions.

Expectedly and unexpectedly, they faded away, away into a blinding white light. She reached for it. She knew it would be her salvation.

She didn't know how right she would be in the end.