The wind blew heavily for a swiftly passing second, blowing a young girls red and black chequered skirt and blonde hair about wildly. The plants sitting in their pots on either side of the balcony rustled and a few leaves tore of them and floated to floor.

The blood red sunset seemed too set the world ablaze in front of her very eyes. The lush green fields that stretched for miles around turn a deep red and orange. A passenger train sped past through some trees in the distance which steam shooting from its chimney. The girl sighed softly.

“Another day gone…”

She turned around quickly. Her hair and the thin chains on her right arm swinging out to one side before settling into place as she walked toward a metal door into a brick built building. The door opened with a horrid creak that showed the hinges had not been oiled in a great deal of time. Strangely though, behind the door was not an entrance to the building, but more of the brick wall, with a strange circular design in the middle of the doorway.

The girl reached out her right arm and touched the design. As her finger tips connected with the symbol, a cross hanging from the chains on her arm illuminated. She spoke.

“Flamma porta expositus.”

As soon as she finished the sentence, the cross on her arm began to swing violently, and the symbol of the wall turned red. All of sudden the wall within the doorway was consumed by fire, and the girl stepped forward into the flames. A bright light consumed her, and the door closed by itself.

Within seconds she was in a long dark hallway. Voices filled with agony could be heard repeating themselves over and over as she walked forward toward a silver door with a square glass window in it. A dim light shone through the window, illuminating a section of the corridor nearest to the door. The rest was near pitch black. The illuminated area adjacent to the door revealed that the corridor was in fact similar to an excessively long school hall. Charred lockers covered the walls on both sides, and shadows or various different people were permanently grafted onto the locker doors, not moving at all, without anything to cast them.

Oddly, the girl felt a great more comfortable in the hallway than she did on the balcony where she had watched the sunset. As she neared the door, one of the shadows moved across the lockers and onto the door and began to speak.

“So Rhiena, how was the sunset today?” said the shadow.
“Dull, red and short as always. Now David, if you don’t mind, I wish to see the Master.”
“Why are you always so cold? All I am trying to do is get to know a beautiful girl.”
“Simple. You’re a goddamn shadow! Now move!” shouted Rhiena.
“I don’t want to. Not after that remark.”

The room suddenly began to shake heavily, and a deep voice filled the air.

“David. Let her pass now! That is an order!”
“Ah! Y-yes Master… O-of course… I-I’m very sorry…” said David the shadow.

Rhiena chuckled to herself. Even after all the years she had been to that hallway and spoken to the shadows, seeing a shadow tremble was always funny to watch. David moved back to his place on the lockers to the right hand side of the door, and Rheina stepped forward, grapsing and turning the spherical door handle.

As she entered the next room, she shielded her eyes from the light. Even though it was dim, it was still blinding after the darkness of the corridor. It was always blinding at first. After a few seconds her eyes adjusted, and she looked around the room.

The room resembled a burnt out classroom. Charred desks and knocked over chairs littered the area, and the blinds covering the windows had blood stains all over them. A man dressed in a pale white suit with black shoes and long black hair sat on a darkly coloured throne at the far side of the classroom, in front of the chalkboard.

“Good evening Rhiena. I must apologize about David. He has been rather restless whilst you were out watching the sunset.”

Time sped past so much faster in the corridor and the classroom than in the “real” world. One hour on Earth was the equivalent of a year in the classroom.

“It’s fine Master. I apologize for being gone so long…” replied Rhiena.
“Now now my dear, you know I do not wish you to apologize for anything.”
“… I know, Master.”
“I want you to get some rest for a few hours. You are to be sent back out there soon. I want you to watch over Sector 37-A throughout their night.”
“Yes, Master.”
“Very good. Now, go and rest up please.”

Rheina nodded and turned to face the windows on the left. She walked toward it muttering inaudible words, and her cross illuminated again. Within an instant the windows and wall split in two vertically and folded up like an accordion, revealing another corridor behind it. This second hallway was lit very well, and resembled a high class hotel.

The floor was covered in a red velvet carpet, and the wooden walls let up to a cream-coloured ceiling that house numerous small chandeliers. Rheina reached the fourth large wooden door on the left and open it swiftly, entering her bedroom and closing the door behind her.

The style of the previous hallway remained unchanged in her bedroom. However, she had placed a dark purple king sized bed under a window opposite the door. There was also a solid black dressing cabinet, complete with a broken mirror on the left hand side of the room.

Rheina stepped forward slowly, dropping her skirt and removing her blouse, revealing a very pale yet beautiful girls body with numerous scars on her back, before climbing into the heavy covers on her bed. She stared up at the ceiling and nodded. The lights flickered off by themselves and she closed her bright blue eyes and breathed deeply. The silence in the room was always so comforting. It was only a matter of minutes before she fell asleep.

Rheina opened her eyes. She could feel an intense heat against her face. Turning her head to face it, she realised she was in a burning house. She was lying on a couch in the middle of a small room. The door to her left was in flames, but the fire hadn’t reached to door to the right.

She quickly stood, accidently taking in a breath of smoke. Trying not to cough and waste time, she hurried to the door on the right. Upon opening it and stepping through, she was startled to find herself beside an old oak tree, gazing at a house burning to ground that she presumed was the one she had just been inside.

At the start of the long gravel track to the house was a mail box. On the side was written the name “Evian”. Rheina turned her gazed from away from the mail box and back to the house. She jumped back in horror as she saw a little girl in a room on the second floor, surrounded by fire. Rheina darted up the gravel track toward the house, only to trip and fall.

The next thing she knew, she was lying on her bed in her room behind the classroom. It had been a nightmare, albeit a very real one. There a knocking at her door and a high pitched female voice could be heard from the other side of it.

“Rheina-a!? Are you awake?”
“Yeah, come on in.”

The tall wooden door opened slowly, revealing a dark haired girl wearing a dark red ball gown with black lace gloves. She shut the door behind her and walked toward the bed, taking a seat next to it and making sure she didn’t crease her dress as she sat down. Rheina sat up in the bed, pulling the sheet up to her shoulders.

“Hello there Rheina,” said the woman. “Are you alright? You seem a bit dazed.
“Sorry Marie, I just had a bit of a nightmare.”
“Again? You really should talk to the Master about that.”
“I know, but I don’t want to bother him with something so trivial.”
“I am sure he won’t mind. You know how much he tries to make us all comfortable.”
“Yeah I know…”

Rheina tilted her head down. A look of great concern took over her pretty face. Marie moved the chair closer to the bed, and the faint light through the window behind it lit her pale face and green eyes. She reached her arm to Rheina’s shoulder and placed it down gently. Rheina turned and looked at Marie and smiled. Marie leant forward and kissed Rheina briefly before the pair embraced. Sitting back on the chair, Marie spoke.

“Don’t worry about it, alright? You can always talk to me if you want. It may help.”
“… Thank you.”
“No need to thank me, my dear.”

Marie looked at a the rustic clock on the far wall. Rheina followed her gazed and, upon noticing the time, jumped up and darted out of bed.

“Woah! What’s wrong honey?” asked Marie.
“I’ve been asleep for days! I’m supposed to the other world soon!”
“Oh, you have another mission?”
“Yeah, Master gave me the order directly! I can’t be late!”
“Okay, I understand. It’s a pity though. You look so nice in your underwear.”

Rheina felt herself blush, and after a brief pause, began to hurriedly get dressed into another red and black chequered skirt and a low V-neck black shirt with lace around the top. She then proceeded to put a second black collared shirt over the top. The second shirt had no sleeves and didn’t consist of much more than the collar and a bit of fabric covering her shoulders and the top portion of her back.

“Oh, my favourite outfit!” shouted Marie in a happy tone.
“What are you talking about? It’s my only outfit! I just have hundreds of copies of it…”
“That’s why it’s my favourite!”

Rheina chuckled. She moved quickly over to a small, ornate box that resembled a coffin on the floor and opened it. The inside was lined with felt, with a modified handgun resting in the middle. Carved on both sides of the handle was an elaborate design of an angel. Rheina picked it up and moved to a wooden bookcase just next to it. After removing numerous books, she revealed a second, much wider box. Taking it down and placing it on her bed, she opened it.

Inside it was in fact miles deep. She reached inside, managing to easily fit her whole arm into the small box. After a few seconds she pulled out a cartridge for her handgun and clipped it in place.

“If there’s one thing I love about the gun, it would be that its connected to the boxes endless supply of bullets…” said Rheina.
“What do you mean? Why is that good?” asked Marie.
“No need to reload,” shrugged Rheina. “It just adds another bullet into the clip from this box every time I fire the gun.”
“Wow! That’s so cool!”
“Isn’t it!”

Rheina smiled, before slipping the gun into a holster which she strapped to her arm.

“You’re so lucky to be able to use such magic. My abilities are limited to simple manipulation. I can’t teleport things or make dimensional voids like this. I can’t even leave the Halls because I wouldn’t be able to open the gate to back in.”

As she spoke Marie seemed to started feeling depressed. Rheina walked to her side and put her arms around her.

“If you ever want to go out, then I’ll come with you. That way you’ll be able to see the outside world again.”
“Really?” replied Marie.
“Of course. I would be happy to. Now I’m really sorry, but I’ve got to get going. You can stay in here if you want.”
“Alright,” said Marie as she and Rheina parted from their second embrace. “I’ll see you later then.”

With that, Rheina kissed Marie’s cheek and smiled before turning and heading for the door. As she passed through and closed it behind her, Marie sighed.

“I’d wait here for you forever, Rheina. You should know that by now.”