“What...” I could barely speak “...are you?”

I heard of doppelgängers and know that their existence is impossible. There is only one soul and no soul can be duplicated. The only other possibility was a beast that could take any form and lure its victims. Demons are capable of that as well, but they usually kill their victim before assuming their identity – for safety precautions. Reapers also use the same trick, but strictly only with their former bodies. That’s why, if you burn or burry their corpses, it won’t make a difference. A reaper would still appear before you the way he used to look alive, with some minor modifications.

But I wasn’t in my world. Those same rules did not apply there. I... well, she... argh, how the ...

Daesung... Daesung’s body was in the snow... in the snow soaked of his blood... , , .

“I am you,” she answered with a diabolical grin.

“You can’t be me!” I yelled and only after realized how stupid that sounded. The wind which wasn’t there before suddenly appeared and breathed with such force, it tore more bandages off my skin. Daesung and Byung Hee’s bodies vanished with the current of air. They had been illusions. Part of me calmed down at the thought of that, but the other was afraid of what could happen in the near future, especially to Daesung. He’s human, so he’s fragile. I’m fragile too, but somehow, I avoided death countless of times already. “Where are they?”

The other me sneered and came closer with the sword still drawn.

“They are experiencing the same things you do,” she changed her position into an offensive one “playing with their biggest fears and desires.” She sprinted in my direction, aiming the sword directly at my head. I moved in time, but she somehow anticipated that and elbowed me to the side. I grabbed onto my mouth and tried to keep my balance.

“The ?!” I felt that. It's ridiculous. Everything was a trick, so why did it hurt so much? Before she could attack me again, I lowered my body and ran into her. We ended up in snow. She dropped her sword and when I tried to take it, her knee connected with my stomach. I gasped. She took her chance to crawl on top of me with her fingers wrapped around my neck. I tried to get them off, but she was too strong.

“You could be so much more!” she cried with desperation unfamiliar to me. It was the first time I was seeing myself acting crazy and I was more scared of that than Daesung’s fake death scene. “But you choose to suppress me. You chose to live like a low life, one that doesn’t show your true potential.” It was becoming increasingly difficult to breathe. My only chance was the discarded sword, lost somewhere near us. I couldn’t voice my opinion, but she didn’t look like the type to listen anyway. “Release me!” she screamed in my face. Man, I was so glad that it didn’t smell.

Something hard... the sword’s handle. I snatched it from the snow and hit her in the head. She didn’t move and only smiled more maniacally than before.

“That’s it!” she pressed her fingers harder over my neck. “FIGHT ME!”

You little ing , don’t you ing tell me what to do!

...alright, insulting her wouldn’t help. She was choking me, for crying out loud!

“DIE!”

OH HECK NO, YOU DIE YOU ING ! I’LL NEVER BE LIKE THAT, NEVER! EVEN IF I HAD EVERY POWER AT MY FINGERTIPS!

And something surely clicked inside when my anger didn’t dim. I her so hard with the sword, she finally flinched, let go and for a second, inspected her head. It was enough for me to shove her off me, enough for me to change roles and plunge that sword through that thick material. It went right ahead and a gush of white smoke came out. I closed my eyes and hurried off her, bruising my arm when I hit the ground.

Great, couldn’t all of that also be just in my mind? Because I don’t want to look for real like a mummy with decaying flesh and putrid stench. I watched the other me morph into a female reaper. Her body became white sand which dispersed with the following gush of wind.

Ugh, Daesung... where’s the kid?

“HELLO?” I looked around: mountains, clouds, the forest not far from me and snow everywhere. I got up and screamed with all my might “DAESUNG, WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?” I inhaled and screamed some more. “BYUNG HEE, MOVE YOUR KEEPER HERE!”

There was no answer. Sighing, I had no other choice but to return by foot to the forest.

I hoped Jessica would get us out already. If there was a way to signal Yuri that we were caught in an ambush, that would have been great. With no instructions, I was on my own.

When I was about to consider which path to take, I gazed at the only, , tree in the area. The same blond who forced me into a dance was there. He gave me a smile and jumped off the branch. His winter coat changed into one filled with black feathers.

“Hello, Sooyoung,” he smoothly greeted. To complete my welcoming party, he gracefully bowed and moved his hand to reveal a blue rose. He handed it to me. I didn't take it. “You’re as rare as this flower: impossible to exist in a natural state, possible when artificially created.”

The heck was he talking about?

“Ah, I’m sorry.” He crumbled the rose under his hand and let its petals scatter in the wind. “I never introduced myself.” He bowed again and remained bended while he watched me with great amusement. “I am Death and you are mine.”