SHOWTIME

F O U R

When I woke up, I expected to be in a hospital or an ambulance, but it was neither of those.
I found myself in a dark hallway with hundreds of black and white doors in both directions.
My head still hurt like a whale sat there, but I tried ignoring it. I had to worry about where I was.
I spotted an old man with black clothes and rushed towards him.

"Hey, hey!" I shouted. "Can you tell me where I am, Sir?"
He looked at me seriously. "Judging by your appearance, you must be the owner of this place, Ma'am."
I gasped. I didn't remember owning a place like that. Was I in one of these crazy stories where it turned out I was a millionaire?
"What kind of place is that?" I asked the man curiously.
He raised an eyebrow. "This is the consciousness of Madame Furina Chase."

Consciousness?! What the actual heck? I was captured in my own consciousness?! How?
The man pointed at one door and said: "These doors lead to your feelings. The black doors are bad feelings like anger or fear, the white doors good feelings like happiness or love."

I sighed. "Who's the leader of this place?"
The guy cleared his throat. "Her majesty doesn't want any guests."
"Didn't you just say I'm the freaking owner of this place? Now, hurry! I don't wanna stay here for too long!" I shouted angrily. And though it felt wrong to be so rude, I still didn't buy it that I was standing in my own freaking consciousness.

When we arrived at the end of the hallway, a big door opened and lead to a huge, dark hall. There, I finally saw someone, sitting on a throne and looking at me in shock.
And I knew why: that person liked exactly like me! The same brown hair, grey eyes, the face... the girl looked like my twin.

"Who are you?" I wanted to know.
But she didn't answer. Instead, she started crying. "This is the end!" She sobbed. "They're gonna win!"
What was going on?
I tried running towards the girl, but the old man held me back.
I still didn't understand anything, so I just stood there and waited for the girl to stop crying.

When the other version of myself finally looked at me without a weird expression on her face, I felt calmer.
"You're Furina Chase." The girl said.
I nodded. "Are you... me?"

The other Furina looked at me and smiled. "I am. Actually, I'm just the 18th version of yours. Every year of your life, you gain experience and knowledge, so you need a new leader of your thoughts and consciousness."

I raised an eyebrow. "You create new versions of myself? Does that mean you already know when I'll die?"
Furina chuckled. "Of course not. The new Furina isn't finished until your birthday. And whenever you die, the production stops and this world ends."
I nodded though this sounded horrible. "What happened to the other 17 versions of myself?"
I kinda wanted to know more about this 'world'.

"They're all dead. But don't worry, on every birthday of yours, there's a great funeral for the old Furina and a big party for the new one." Furina looked around. "You may be wondering why it's dark here."
My eyes followed hers and I saw the darkness again. "You're right, that question came to my mind."
Furina sighed. "It's because you fainted. And you don't think anymore because you're asleep. We all don't know what's happening right now or even where we are. But I'm sure Apollo took care of you."

I didn't want to show any reaction, but my heart was racing when she said that. "One last question... why am I here?"
Now, it was my turn to sigh because Furina started sobbing again. I didn't know I was that emotional.

Furina cleared her throat. "That's complicated. I'll have to show you something."
She stood up and walked away. The old guy and I followed her.

We stopped in front of a big cross, standing on a little hill. There was a sign saying 'Corruption' next to it.
I looked up and saw another version of me. And this one didn't look exactly like me. This Furina had darker eyes and hair, crimson lips and blood on her face and arms. There were chains around her body and she had a scared look on her face.

Furina — the normal Furina — stopped right next to it. "That's a corrupted version of yours."
The girl roared like a lion. "I'm not a 'that', witch! Take me off that cross immediately!"
After hearing her angry voice, my head felt heavier than otherwise.

The normal Furina looked at me frightened. "The corrupted version of yourself is taking over your consciousness and your brain. Slowly, but surely."
I closed my eyes in pain. "What the heck is a corrupted version of myself?"

"I'm right in front of you, silly! I didn't know we were auch a stupid person in real life! Were you raised by rats with underdeveloped brains?!" The corrupted Furina shouted.

Normal Furina looked at her angrily. "You're making it even worse! Shut up now! You're the one who's hanging on the cross!" Then, she looked at me worried.
The Furina on the cross scoffed. "Then why don't you take me off this cross?"

Furina ignored her. "Corruption is a powerful disease that'll connect all your bad emotions to create an evil version of yourself, called corrupted version. You're in the end phase of the puberty now, so you're a good target for corruption because it's easier to control you."
She sighed. "Remember when your 'brain parts' had a little argument yesterday? It was actually the corrupted part of your brain trying to take over your mind. Luckily, you didn't listen to it. But you're here, which means that you're officially 50 percent corrupted now. And sooner or later, you'll have to decide whether you want to live corrupted or not."

I understood the words Furina said, but to me, they didn't make any sense. I felt like a stupid idiot who couldn't understand anything. And of course, there still was corrupted Furina.
"A little less drama next time. And do you really have to say that I lost, little one? When I'll get off these stupid chains, I'll make sure you'll suffer the same as I do now for freaking 17 years!"

"Never gonna happen." Normal Furina replied.
Corrupted Furina just smirked. "We'll see about that! I'll laugh at you! Laugh!"
My head started hurting even more and I fell onto the ground. I felt weak and there was this feeling in my stomach that I had to barf.

"Stop yelling!" I shouted.
The girls looked at me and were quiet for a second, but then, Normal Furina smiled. "I think you have to go back to the real world now. Just one more thing, Furina Chase."

She came closer. "You'll have to decide one day. Decide which side you want to choose for the rest of your life, corruption or normality. But if the corruption gets you before you get to make the real decision, there's no going back. Always remember that."

After that, I don't remember what happened else. I just saw the world around me turning darker and darker, and then, I fell into a deep hole.
I tried screaming for help, but my voice felt dead like I hadn't used it in years.

I just closed my eyes and waited for my death.