Silhouette of a Wilted Flower

I have to level up more

Omori's eyes burst open.

What was this awful presence inside his room? Last he remembered, he had fallen asleep by Basil's side, his head cozily snuggled against teal green hair amidst comforting words from the flower-crowned Royal Royal. That kind of beautiful sleep should have set the stage for an amazing wake up in the morning. Why did he have this sinking feeling in his chest that everything was about to go wrong?

Omori turned his head to the right, whereupon he isolated the cause of his problem.

A certain shadow boy sat on the dresser by his bed, wearing the most infuriating smile Omori had ever seen.

"Get out!" Omori screamed. He jumped out of bed and whacked Stranger with his pillow. The pillow bounced off his shadowy visage as if it had struck a trampoline, or a very bouncy mattress.

"Good morning, Omori," Stranger said. "You look happy to see me."

Omori's eyes darted around in search of his knife. Stupid morning fog. His sleep-addled brain couldn't remember where he had put his knife last night!

"Relax," Stranger said, an air of indifference. "After last night, I don't want your blood pressure to spike like that again this early in the morning. So, I did you the favor of removing your knife from your room before you woke up."

Omori threw his pillow into the wall. A monochromatic hand grabbed a fistful of shadow shirt.

"What the hell are you doing in my room?" Omori demanded.

"What do you mean? I never left," Stranger replied.

"I destroyed you. I ripped you to shreds. I ripped your shreds to shreds." Omori bared his teeth. "How are you still here?"

Stranger rolled his eyes. "Didn't I tell you that you can't get rid of me?"

"I can get rid of anything I want!"

"Well, look who you haven't gotten rid of yet."

Red hands swarmed out of the walls and encircled Stranger like a ring of spears. Omori's words dripped with violence. "Why do I clearly remember ripping you to shreds, then?"

"I pretended to fade away so that you could calm down. I figured you weren't really listening to reason at that point." Stranger pointed at the broken chains lying on the floor around him. "Oh, and I could've escaped whenever I wanted to."

Omori wanted to scream.

Stranger had made a fool out of him. This shadow boy was the biggest threat to Headspace ever.

I'll..

I'll erase him, even if it means that I must destroy the source of it all.

Black Space.

"Ha, good luck with that," Stranger said, a vicious smirk.

Did he just read my mind?

"When will you figure out that you can't get rid of your own conscience?" Stranger asked.

A floating red hand grabbed Stranger's neck, ready to choke him.

"My conscience is clear," Omori asserted.

"You and I both know that's not true. There's people in the real world waiting for you to wake up, so you can face the trouble you've caused for so long."

"The trouble I caused?" Omori said, disbelieving. "I am the ruler of this world and everyone obeys me."

"Keep telling yourself that," Stranger cracked. "Last I heard, even your kingdom here is falling into ruin. What are you gonna do about all those shadows popping up everywhere?"