deCEIVED (Book 2)

7: Michaela

Even though I had taken at least six Dream Pills before I fell asleep, I experienced yet another hallucination. This time, I was trapped in a room with no doors or windows. There was only a single mirror on one of the walls, and when I stared at my reflection, I had an appearance similar to my RRD form.

I had caramel blonde hair that included lots of big, bouncy curls, ocean blue eyes that were no different from my father's eyes, skin that was as white and cold as snow, and I was two inches shorter than I'd originally been. When I looked down at my hair, however, it still had a mud brown/caramel blonde ombrè.

"What's going on? Why isn't my real appearance matching the girl in the mirror?" I asked myself quietly.

Then I looked down and saw an old piece of paper with a star in between a circle of other symbols- a Poison Ivy leaf, a Tabby Cat's head, a Full Moon, a Jasmine Flower, a Pickaxe, a Snowflake, a Stratus Cloud, a Gemstone in the shape of a heart, a Phoenix, a Water Lily, and a cluster of Cardinal Feathers.

"The DeCipher Wheel?! But...that could only mean..." I gasped and whispered loudly, "HE'S GETTING STRONGER!"

"Michaela!"

My head jerked up and my eyes darted over to Stephanie, who was smiling deviously at me, and was glaring at me with cat-like pupils in her eyes. Even though this obviously wasn't Stephanie, her words and her made it seem like this was no one else but Stephanie Alicia Trigger.

"Stephanie, is that really you?" I asked.

Stephanie nodded quickly, but as soon as I looked her in the eye, she began twitching and changing her appearance. Her hair transformed from a slightly-auburn hue to a shiny, silver color with several white streaks in it.

Suddenly, she screamed so loudly that my eardrums nearly popped, and while she didn't look like she was in pain, she wouldn't stop acting like she was.

"Michaela, help me!" She wailed.

I ran over to Stephanie without even thinking about it, and just as I tried to soothe her, she transformed into the very thing that I feared she was- Bill Cipher himself.

"Oh, Poison Ivy..." Bill teased, "you're too gullible for someone so powerful. I could just snap my fingers and possess your best friend and you wouldn't even notice. At least that's what this appears to be."

Bill snapped his fingers and shifted from being a yellow, one-eyed triangle into a demonic version of Devon.

"Michaela, I was only kidding! It's me, Devon! I was just messing with you! This is the Mindscape, remember? You can be anything you want to be in here! See? Watch, I'm gonna transform into you." Bill-Devon said.

He shifted into a demonic version of myself, which made me freak out, because if I tried to fight myself, the fight would never end.

"Michaela, look, I'm you now! Isn't this fun? Here, I'll transform into Bill again, just watch!" Bill-Devon said when he transformed into me.

"Yeah, right. I know it's really you, Bill. I literally just saw you transform into Devon." I sneered.

Bill transformed back into his true appearance and cackled like there was no tomorrow. "Sure, let's just assume that I AM Bill. What are you going to do about it?"

I summoned a crossbow and fired dozens of arrows at his eye. He dodged all of the arrows, and while he was doing this, he transformed into many demonic versions of my friends. That didn't stop me from firing the arrows, of course, but the way that he transformed made me feel a bit unsure if this was really Bill or not.