Inside a damp little room of a supposedly grand mansion, a figure had slipped free of her body—
or, to be precise, the original owner of this body.
"She" floated cross-legged in mid-air, long silky hair swaying gently above the girl sprawled lifeless on the creaky bed.
The face of that body—the very shell she once called her own—was pale and empty.
The soul jabbed a translucent finger into her own cheek, again and again.
Of course it went straight through, like poking mist.
"You brat! I've tagged along through two lifetimes, watched you pull off every crazy stunt, fearless of everything.
And now you just lie there like a lump?
How long am I supposed to wait, huh?!"
Fuming, she pressed her blurry forehead to that "shell," soft hair spilling into the dry, messy strands of her former self.
Her awareness slid into a pitch-black corridor lined with countless doors,
each one humming with a different world.
This wasn't her own memory.
This was the mental labyrinth of the soul currently squatting in this body.
She threw doors open one by one:
A room stacked to the ceiling with maps and books, overflowing with bizarre knowledge.
Another shrouded in darkness, echoing with mad laughter and off-key singing—like some underground rave.
Yet another completely empty chamber, so bare it made her skin crawl.
Still no sign of that little rascal.
Only one door remained, tucked away at the very end.
Its golden frame shimmered faintly, like light seeping through cracks.
She darted forward and shoved—
but the glowing door refused to budge,
as if waiting for its true master.
Knock. Knock.
From inside came a heavy bass beat, a kind of dance music she'd never heard in any of her own memories.
Her eyes went wide.
What in the—?
She pounded harder.
Finally, the door creaked open.
A girl poked her head out, ready to yell—
"Who dares crash my party with these six-pack hotties—"
The scream died halfway.
Both of them froze.
One stiffened because... ghost.
The other stiffened because... was that a hot-guy nightclub hidden inside the mind of her host?
The music kept thumping.
Purple lights kept twinkling.
And the silence between them was... gloriously awkward.