The Quest For Sanity

2)Hunting the Demon

Emma floated around the outside world. The living realm.

(Why did you agree to this exactly?) all the voices asked. All were curious.

"Because I didn't want to spend my afterlife locked in a room with no outside contact." Emma responded. The voices seemed satisfied with that answer. "So any ideas on where to go to find this dark spirit?"

(No, none) the entirety of the voices, excluding two, responded.

(Somewhere dark) Darky responded. Darky being the name Emma gave the voice due to it's dark nature.

"No duh," Emma responded.

(Look in the ruins during the dead of night.) Light stated. Light was the opposite of Darky in every way possible. Emma sometimes thought it was Annalise trying to chat with her. However impossible that could be.

"Ruins? What ruins?" Emma asked. Then she noticed where she was. A body moved next to her.

"Those ruins," Emma turned her head, and gasped. Standing next to her was a redheaded, blue eyed girl. She didn't look all that familiar, yet her voice said otherwise. It sounded incredibly familiar, behind the weariness that is.

"An-annalise?" Emma stuttered. She realized that Light's voice matched Annalise's perfectly, though she still thought that was impossible, as the redhead nodded. Looking closer at Annalise, Emma noticed that she looked older. Not drastically, but definitely no longer fifthteen.

"Welcome back to the living world. I've missed you, and as you can see, things have changed in the last six years," Annalise said longingly. The redhead clearly missed her, that much was obvious, but something else had registered in Emma's mind.

"Six years?" Emma was clearly able to hear the shock in her voice. "But it's only been six days."

"Maybe time moves slower in the ghost realm. I remember when I went with Marilynn. We were there for a few minutes, but when we got back hours had passed."

"So one minute equals one hour, one day equals one year, I'm guessing one hour equals one day. What would equal one month?"

"Well, one hour equals a day, so seven hours would equal one week, multiply that by four to equal twenty-eight hours." Annalise calculated. Emma stared at her. "What?" Annalise asked. Emma tilted her head. "It's simple math," Annalise stated. Emma laughed. Annalise rolled her eyes, and looked towards the ruins. "The demon lives there, but before you go, you need a weapon."

"A weapon?" Emma was a bit timid to ask. Why should she get a weapon when she is so clearly out of it

"Yes, a weapon. I hate to break it to you, but you can't destroy a demon with your bare hands. No one can."

"No one?" Emma's voice was even fainter now.

"Well I suppose another demon can," Annalise looked thoughtful. "But that's besides the point. Follow me if you want to survive your encounter." With that Annalise turned and stalked off towards the forest. If Emma didn't have her head filled with voices chatting away, and were paying attention, she would have noticed that this was the same path the two had taken six years before.

"Are we there yet?" Emma asked in the rudest voice in her collection of voices in her head.

Annalise chuckled, "Yes, welcome to my humble abode." Annalise pushed a branch down revealing a cave. Memories suddenly hit Emma like a tidal wave. Memories of Marilynn, before she was queen. Memories from six years ago. From before any of this began. Emma chuckled.

"Remember when you left me out here because you thought getting attacked by a demon was safer than facing an angry Marilynn?" Emma asked. Annalise grinned.