I tried to sleep some more, and part of me wondered if I would wake up in the other world again. But it seemed like it wasn't time to return there yet, and sleep refused to come to me. So I lay awake, staring up at the bright, white ceiling, and tried to piece it all together.

Five nights had passed since I had made my decision to take the pills, hoping that it would stop the dreams of this place. And five days had passed in Tartaros, according to the others.

I should have known right away that something was wrong when I continued to dream, despite the nurse's promise that the pills would put me into a dreamless sleep. I couldn't recall every detail that I had dreamed about those past nights, but I was now convinced that I had been in Tartaros all along. The skin around the silver shackle on my left wrist was still reddened and raw, and evoked vivid memories of the electricity that had surged through my body as I had been punished during the trials, for things I still didn't understand. I recalled that I had been shocked repeatedly at first, in the room with the piano, but there had been no shocks later on. I still had no idea what it all meant.

There was a brief knock, but before I could answer, the door to my room opened.

"You're back!" Bridge squeaked excitedly as she bolted into the room, and jumped onto the bed to hug me. "Oh gosh, you're freezing! Let me get you something to warm you up-"

"Wait."

I grabbed hold of her hand and held her back just as she was about to get up. Nobody else had come to visit me yet, and I hadn't found it in me to go out on my own. I was still sulking over the conversation I had overheard. But Bridge hadn't had a part in that. She was my friend.

"Please..." I begged, "Just... stay?"

...always here for you...

The phrase popped up in my mind as her look of surprise gave way to a warm smile. A searing pain flashed through my brain between my temples, and caused me to wince, but it was gone as quickly as it came.

Bridge sat back down on the bed and took my hands into hers to warm them.

"You know, I was really worried you'd never come back. But I'm so happy you did. I really missed you."

I smiled faintly. "Thanks. I missed you too, Bridge."

"So what happened?"

I shrugged, really wishing I knew. "I was in a trial, I suppose."

"For five consecutive days?!" she asked in disbelief.

"Seems so..."

"Which trial was it?" Bridge asked.

"My own, I think. It was a room, where I had to do tests. And there was a piano."

"A piano? That's new for sure." She looked at me with great curiosity, her hazel-colored eyes appearing even bigger than usual. "So... that's your talent? You used to be a pianist, perhaps?"

I shook my head. "I didn't even know I could play," I said, evading the question.

"Huh. Curious..."

Bridge got up and paced around the room, playing with one of her braids, twisting and twirling it between her fingers absentmindedly. Against the whiteness of the room and her clothes, shades of copper and fiery red seemed to ripple through her auburn hair. When she turned around, she threw her hair over her shoulder in an elegant motion, and I was hit with such a strong sense of déjà-vu again, that it felt like a literal smack to the head.

Have we decided yet if this is a dream or not? I asked myself, and the various voices in my head. The fact that their occasional presence didn't even disconcert me any longer should have probably been disconcerting in itself. To my dismay, this time, no voice answered me.

Meanwhile, Bridge had stopped in front of the shelf, and looked at the card that sat there on display.

"Dream gave it to me," I explained, as she reached out to take it.

"U-huh," she just said.

She had her back to me, but I saw that she traced the frayed edge in a motion that seemed familiar to her.

"Would you like to have it?" I asked.

"What? Oh, no! I was just looking..."

She quickly put it back and sat down on the bed next to me once more. But her gaze lingered on the image of the Queen of Hearts wistfully for a moment. I stared at her face, trying to make sense of what, or rather who I was seeing there before me. She definitely reminded me of that girl, that Deviant I had seen in the ads, if only for a moment. But I could have sworn I had never heard of or seen that other girl before - before I had met Bridge.

When she suddenly turned back to me and found me staring at her, we both blushed.

"So, eh..." she started. "What do you wanna do now? I mean, there's not all that much to do around here, of course, but... we could head to the library, or..."

"Actually. Can I ask you a question?"

"Always." She gave me a warm smile that caused a tingling sensation to creep up behind my forehead. The resemblance was uncanny.

"What does 'imprinted' mean?" I aksed.

Her eyes widened in surprise at my question. "Where did you hear that?"

"I overheard Quill..." I admitted, "How she said that I might be... well... imprinted or something."

"Ah, because of – well, it's like this..." She cleared her throat.

The topic seemed to make her somewhat uncomfortable, and I suddenly had the awkward feeling that I was about to get some sort of sex talk, from a girl several years my junior.

"Sometimes, when people awake here..." she started, "Or actually, usually, when they awake here, the first person they see... they will feel a special connection to them. For example, Quill once told me, the first person she saw was Feather. It's why she's so protective of her. The same goes for Rain. She also first met Feather when she woke up."

"Who was the first person you saw?" I asked curiously.

"Ehm... that was Rain," she said, blushing heavily.

"A special connection, hm?" I couldn't help but grin at her flustered reaction.

"Well, it's not always like that, obviously! It's only natural I guess, to form a bond with the person you meet first after losing all your memory. It's only sometimes that.... For Dia, the first person he saw was Edge. And... well..." She twirled another of her braids around her fingers, struggling to find the right words. "One thing kinda led to another between them. For a while they were quite happy I guess, but... it ended badly eventually."

"Oh. I never knew – wow. That's... a pity."

"Yeah, it is. It makes everything a bit difficult, because there's not a lot of space for them to avoid each other here."

"I see."

I thought back to the first time when I had awoken here, and realized that the first person I had met was Cloud. I wondered if what I felt when I thought of him was a 'special connection', as she had put it. I certainly couldn't deny that he had intrigued me from the moment I had gotten here, but I refused to believe that I was so gullible as to simply let myself - well, whatever this imprinting thing was supposed to be, I wouldn't let myself become wrapped up in something so silly.

"Don't worry. You'll be fine," Bridge interrupted my disgruntled thoughts.

"...what?"

"You're strong, is what I mean. I see that in your eyes."

I furrowed my brow at her words, not just because their context wasn't entirely clear to me. I wasn't strong. Maybe I appeared strong, but it was nothing but an act. A carefully upheld façade that I clung to for support. I pretended to be strong and confident to cover up my lack of these qualities.

And now, something inside of me felt like it was crumbling more and more, the longer I spent in this place. A wall of sorts. And I was very, very afraid of what was behind it.

"Come on, let's go visit Feather, I bet she'll be thrilled to see you too," Bridge suddenly suggested.

Before I could answer or refuse, she pulled me up and out the door.