THE FIRST THING THEO REGISTERED WAS THAT THEIR KIDNAPPER WAS HOT, even as his head spun from the chloroform and his gaze was slightly unfocused.

As far as he could see, they were in a little black room. Xandra was to his left, Dexter and Paris were to his right. A gag stuffed his tongue, filling his mouth with the taste of cotton. There were no windows, no visible doors, just a metal table in front of them like the ones they had in detective shows.

Behind the table sat a man. A hot, hot man.

Hot as fuck.

He had a dark speckled beard that shadowed his jaw with liquorice black, and eyes equally dark. (That jaw-- Theo would kill to have a jaw like that. Or to kiss a jaw like that.) But his eyes looked like they were soaked in kerosene, dangerous and glittering with malice and unspeakable evils. Yet the malice in them made Theo's blood rush. The man's eyebrows cut slashes of heavy obsidian over his brow, and his dark hair curled over his forehead, slicked back slightly, making Theo think of a sexier Elvis.

And who was sexier than Elvis?

Xandra, next to him, growled something through her gag. Theo twisted his neck to look at her, eyebrows cocked in question. She shook her head, glaring at the man still. Theo muscled his foot so it brushed hers, and tapped her gently. Glad you're alive.

Her eyes crinkled in a smile, and she tapped his foot back, too. Same here.

Theo turned to check on Dexter and Paris. Both were quiet, though Paris was fidgeting with the cloth strips that bound their hands, either trying to break out or trying to tie himself more securely. Theo wasn't sure which one he'd place bets on. Dexter looked like the drug was hitting him hard, his eyes slightly drifting in two different directions. Oof.

Theo turned back to the hot guy. He was sitting across from them, examining them with those smokey coal eyes, giving them time to come to.

No, bad Theo. Don't get seduced to the dark side! Theo berated himself, shaking his head. I will not fall in love with a man twice my age who kidnapped me, and potentially could sell me into a human trafficking pyramid scheme.

Then he spoke, and Theo was a puddle of hormones on the floor. Screw the human trafficking pyramid.

"I want to apologise for your treatment." His voice was low, rumbling over Theo like an earthquake, gritty yet full. It carried weight, dark and heavy, and made Theo's hairs stand on end, snapping his focus to attention, making his heart rush.

Theo would've told him not to apologise, but his mouth was still gagged.

The beautiful man continued. "My name is Kiernan Rox. I'm a general here, the leader of an army called the Keepers. I'm sure you have a lot of questions. I'll try to answer as many as I can."

He signalled with two gloved fingers forward, and four black-armoured figures --Keepers, Dexter presumed-- marched forward from the shadows, unknotting the gags at the back of their heads. Up close, their armour was matte, a strange synthetic material that looked both soft and plastic at once.

Theo winked at his guard. "Thanks, love."

Xandra spat at her guard, furious. "What the hell? You can't just kidnap people! Where the fuck am I?"

"We," Paris corrected, still wiggling about. "Where the fuck are we. We're all here, commonly, together."

"Shut up, French Fry."

"Sorry, Hurricane Xandy."

General Rox's face crossed with a pained expression.

"Can we get back to the topic, please?" Dexter squeaked, voice trembling a little. He was trying desperately not to freak out, swallowing down the thick texture of fear and panic. It wasn't working as well as he hoped, but he'd done this before. He could do it again.

They fell silent, waiting. Each in their own hell, Dexter assumed. Fearing and running in their hamster wheel of thoughts.

"You are in another reality, one different from your own," Rox's growly voice continued. Theo had to actively remind himself to focus. "It is a mirrored reality, one that reflects the one from which you came. We call this reality Mirage. Whatever happens here, physically, has no effect on your world. Whatever happens in your world, does."

"Wait, but at Esmeralda's house--" Theo blurted.

"Don't tell him anything!" Xandra hissed.

Rox waved his hand. "No need to worry. We know where you came from: we've been watching that building for a while now."

"Why?" Dexter asked.

"I'll explain in a moment. But yes, at Esmeralda's house, your party remains were missing? No dirty floors or crumpled cans, yes?" He looked to them for confirmation.

They nodded.

"We believe that whoever sent you here has been preparing for your arrival. They most likely cleaned as the party went on."

"Wow, I'm so grateful that our other would-be kidnappers wanted a nice place for us to stay. Can't say the same for you," Xandra glared.

Rox ignored her. "We're working under the assumption that the people who forced you here wanted you to stay in that building. After all, it's familiar, safe, and clean. That would make the Damia's jobs easier on all ends."

"Damia?" Paris cocked his head. "Aren't those the snake ladies?"

"That's lamia, dimwit," Xandra sighed.

"I'm so sorry I don't know every fake animal to not exist."

"Damia are the monsters and demons of this realm. The two that chased you are prime examples of them," Rox cut over their arguing.

"So that nasty elephant-monkey was a Damia?" Theo gagged. "God, never again. Make me a BDSM slave, I don't care, just don't make me look at one of those' faces."

Rox gave him a strange look. "Right. The Damia are servants of a much more powerful being, a demoness who we call the Queen of Shadows."

Rox's face hardened at her name, his eyes turning sharp as blades. Whatever the Queen of Shadows had taken from him, it had scarred.

"Her true name has been lost to time. She is the one who attempted to drag you here, through the realms."

"But why?" Xandra demanded. "Why us? And why bring us here?"

General Rox stood, and behind him, a panel of the wall pushed open. The four guards that had removed their gags left, now replaced by two soldiers instead. One had slightly fancier armour, with a silver armband around their bicep. Through the open door, Theo caught a glimpse of strangely familiar linoleum floors and green tiles, before the panel shut again.

"It will be easier for these two to explain," Rox crossed to the panel himself, bowing to each of his kidnappees. "I will see you all later. Good day, and apologies for the kidnapping."

Then he was gone.

"Just like that," Theo sighed. "The love of my life, gone."

"He's old, you weirdo," Xandra's voice was thick with obvious judgement. "Ew."

"You can't deny he's attractive!" Theo protested. "I aspire to look like that when I'm his age."

"Lover boy's got a point," Paris admitted. "Mans is hot."

"Hawt," Theo repeated.

Dexter averted his eyes. "This is weird."

"Agreed," Xandra shut hers, pained.

The two guards stared at them in silence, stony black masks revealing nothing. Dexter could see himself reflected in them, and wondered who was behind the helmet. Surely someone brusque and boring, if they were tasked to explain... whatever Rox wanted them to explain. 

The guards studied them, then looked at each other.

"You were right."

"Guess so."

"This is going to be so weird."

The one with the silver arm band took a steeling breath, raising their hands to their helmet. The other solider mimicked the first. "Let's get this done."

They lifted their smooth black masks off in sync.

"Welcome to Mirage," Illias Cross said grimly, giving them the barest of smiles.

"Boy, are you going to regret going to that party," Naoki Mae sighed.

The four stared, jaws dropping.

"The fuck," Theo spat.

"LANGUAGE, THEO," Naoki teased, placing her helmet on the table. She propped herself up on it, swinging her legs. "Hey, Xandra."

"Hi?" Xandra blinked.

Illias stepped forward, untying each of their bonds, one by one. "I'm sorry you had to be dragged around like this. Are you all right?"

Paris rubbed his wrists. "I've been better."

Dexter nodded fervently in agreement.

Xandra yanked away from Illias the moment he set her free, sneering. She had never hated him outright, but she was looking for someone to blame right about now, and his smug, perfect, face made it so easy.

"I want answers, dipshit," she demanded.

Naoki raised an eyebrow. Normally Xandra was calm, collected. Maybe even emotionless. The most Naoki had ever seen her upset was when someone had unplugged her music desktop before all of Xandra's song had finished downloading, and several hours of work was lost. Even then, Xandra had only slammed her fist on the desk and walked away.

Outright shots being fired? Naoki hid a half-grin. It was from stress and fear, she knew, but angry Xandra was something she could get used to. Especially directed at Illias.

"You'll get them," Illias promised. He crossed back to Naoki's side, leaning against the table with her.

She nodded at Xandra. "I know you're pissed. I would be, too. And scared, probably."

"No shit," Paris murmured, nodding his head in agreement.

"First time I showed up here, I was six. I nearly fell down a pit, got eaten by a Damia, and stabbed all in under thirty minutes," she continued.

"A pit is those black hole things you've probably seen in the sidewalks," Illias supplied.

"Yeah, we gathered," Xandra glared at him.

"Okay."

"Anyway," Naoki cut over Illias and Xandra's staring contest. "It's new, and shocking, and quite horrifying sometimes. I get it. But you're going to have to adapt fast if you want to make it here."

"And if I don't want to make it here?" Paris raised his hand.

"Then you can leave," Illias shrugged. "We can wipe your memory and block your access to Mirage. You go back to your ordinary lives and your ordinary dreams. The last thing you'll remember is leaving Esmeralda's party, drunk."

"It sounds too easy," Dexter frowned. "Why would you let us go so fast, after kidnapping us?"

"We only kidnapped you to get you away safely," Illias rested his hand atop his helmet. "We've found that it's easier to transport people that way, instead of fighting you every step of the journey. Plus, if you ever were to fall into the hands of the Shadow Queen, you'd be able to reveal secrets."

"What kind of secrets?" Theo asked.

"Secret secrets," Naoki said pointedly.

"Right," Illias touched her arm. "If you want to leave right now, you can. It'll be like this never happened. Just say the word."

He waited.

There was a long silence.

"I kinda wanna find out what the other offer is," Theo said, grinning sheepishly.

"You can leave at any moment after this point," Illias promised. "This doesn't have to be your final decision, I'm just asking you all now."

Another long pause.

"I'm staying," Dexter decided. "I want to find out how this place works."

"I'm staying too, then," Paris chimed. "I wanna use my swords again."

"Swords?" Illias asked.

"I can make lightsabers," he said excitedly, swinging his arms around wildly. "It's fucking great."

Xandra shrugged. "I'll stay. Seems cool, besides the obvious threats of death and destruction."

Naoki was fiddling with some straps on her forearms. "That was concerningly easy."

"I hate everything about my real life," Xandra said. "At least here I can run really fast."

"Super speed, cool," Naoki's eyes widened, letting the strap hang free.

"Remember, if you change your mind, you can go," Illias repeated, redirecting their attention. "If you guys are sure, then I'll keep debriefing you."

The four exchanged glances.

"We're in," they said.

Illias nodded. "Good. We need all the help we can get."

THE GIST WAS SIMPLE. Or so Naoki insisted. But when Xandra thought about the class president's 4.0 GPA, she wondered if "simple" was relative.

"Here's the deal, for your kindergarten-level brains," Naoki emerged from the dark part of the room, pulling out a rolling white board, two markers sitting on the little ledge below. "There's a bad guy."

"There always is," Paris sighed.

"The Queen of Shadows, her Horrible Darkness, yada yada," Theo waved his hand dismissively. "She can't be that scary."

"Is that because she's a woman?" Xandra asked.

It was uncomfortably silent.

"No."

"Riiight."

Naoki tapped the whiteboard, and they all refocused. "So. Spooky Queen. She's a demon, one of the higher class Damia that you encountered before."

Naoki drew a stick figure with long hair and a black dress. Around her, she made blobby shapes with fangs and wings.

"Those are understatements," Paris pointed.

She drew a long line, dividing the board in half, hot-dog way. "There are two realms. The dreamscape, Mirage, and our real world."

She labeled the bottom half, where the Stick Queen was, as "MIRAGE". The upper half she labeled "REALITY".

"The Queen wants to rule Mirage, and achieve full power over the realm. Through that, she'll be able to control every person in the real world, via the dreamscape." Now the Stick Figure Queen was smiling evilly, a wavy ray extending from her hands, and encircling a large expanse of the whiteboard, crossing over the dividing line. Inside that wiggly circle, she drew screaming faces and crying babies.

"Lovely," Theo and Paris chorused.

"Shut up," she put a little tear under a puppy's eye. "Currently, the Queen of Shadows has been making little advances into the real world. People like us, called Walkers, can cross between realms and retain full consciousness in both. We have powers in Mirage, as I'm sure you already found out. Our dreams are lucid, and we have control over our own actions. Like what you guys are experiencing now."

"Why haven't I dreamt like this before?" Dexter asked, clearly still following Naoki's whiteboard drawings. Theo was barely scraping by with the visual aid.

"A lot of Walkers suppress their abilities, unconsciously," Illias jumped in. "We're not sure why. Sometimes as a defence mechanism, if the first experience in Mirage was traumatic. Sometimes certain brains can't handle the dual-reality aspect."

"Or you could've fallen into a pit upon your first entrance," Naoki popped the cap on and off her dry erase marker. "When you fall down a pit, you forget everything that happened in Mirage, and you can never Walk again."

"So don't fall down a pit," Illias summed up.

"Okay. So the Queen of Shadows wants to rule both realms. How is she breaking into our world?" Xandra asked.

Naoki drew some Walkers, wearing cloud-shaped shirts. "With Walkers. Specifically, hidden Walkers, the ones who don't know what a Walker even is."

"Like us?" Theo's brow creased.

"Like you," Naoki agreed. "That's why you're here. You all were probably suppressed Walkers, but whatever drug you consumed reawoke that ability in you. It spit you out here, where the Damia were supposed to take control of you."

Dexter was almost afraid to ask. "What would've happened then?"

"If they had caught you, the Damia would latch onto you. It would meld with your mind, and be able to control your movements in both Mirage and the real world," Naoki drew little red dots over the Walkers' eyes. "Mind control, essentially. That's how the Queen has been invading reality: she has possessed Walkers."

"We call them Puppets," Illias said, tapping his long fingers along the table. "They're indistinguishable. Damia have access to every part of your brain, once they meld with you. They're able to see your memories, your thoughts, your feelings. They can act like you as seamlessly as sliding a DVD into its player."

"You still listen to DVDs?" Theo gawked.

"Enough with the interruptions," Naoki shot him a look. He cringed back down, mouthing sorry.

"For the past year or so, Illias and I have been hunting the Puppets in our school. We figure out who they are, through a series of trials and observations. Once we have a list, we enter Mirage, and look for them. Once we find a Puppet in Mirage, we destroy the Damia, and set the person free."

"Recently, though, there have been more and more Puppets. We can't figure out where they're coming from, and how they're growing in such large numbers," Illias picked up after her. "Well, we didn't know, until now."

"We suspect someone at the party drugged the punch. Only Walkers would react to it, and normal people--"

"Sleepers."

"--Would be unaffected. That way, mass amounts of Walkers would be drawn into Mirage and be effectively captured by Damia. In the morning, after the party, the Damia would have full control over the Puppet, and they could continue to school like any normal day. No suspicion."

Naoki gave them a fierce little grin. "But you guys are special. You've been missing ever since the night of the party."

"How?" Xandra furrowed an eyebrow. "We've only been gone... it's got to be three hours at most."

"It's been almost sixteen," Illias corrected. "Time works strangely here, but more importantly, the Damia never got their hands on you. If we hadn't been watching Esmeralda's building, you all probably would've been Puppets of the Shadow Queen."

"Sounds like a sick band name," Theo mused. Xandra bobbed her head in agreement. 

"So you saved us," Paris said, dawning. "Wow. Thanks, Mr. Kidnapper."

"I'll tell the general you said so," Naoki smirked.

"So what do you want from us?" Xandra kicked her feet up onto the table, at ease now. Yeah, shit was crazy, but she'd learned to adapt at an early age. If she got caught up on the panic, and let it overwhelm her... she couldn't do that. She wouldn't let herself do that. So instead she forced a mask of calm.

"We want your help tracking down and destroying Puppets," Illias tapped Naoki's drawing of the red-eyed Walkers. "There are too many at King's, and we can't handle them all."

"Plus demon killing is hard work, and it's beginning to get tedious," Naoki chimed in.

"It's dangerous, though. Walkers are gifted, and we can train you to use your powers correctly, but all that comes with a price. If you get physically injured here, you're going to be hurt in the real world as well," he warned. "I won't lie to you. This is dangerous work. We don't want you to take this lightly. If you agree to this, you're agreeing to the risk of getting hurt or killed."

Paris shrugged. "I've got a lightsaber, I'll be fine."

"You're gonna need me to save you, asshole," Xandra retorted. "Your fancy little knife won't do anything against a Damia twice your size."

"That's what you think, Xandy."

"I can't wait to see you get crushed by one of those things."

"Enough!" Naoki demanded. "God, this is worse than my Spanish project team. Are you on board, or not? We warned you, and there are no liability waivers in your dreams, so you can't hold us accountable. Make your decisions, and make them quick. We don't have time to waste around fighting like toddlers."

Theo raised his hand. "I'm in. I wanna find out what my powers are."

"If it means I'm helping people, then I'm in too," Dexter announced. "I can see the future, I think. It'll help."

"Thanks, Dexter," Illias clasped his hand. "You're a good man."

He smiled.

"I'm staying. For the lightsabers," Paris said. "I bet I could kill a hundred of those Damia."

"If the dipshit is staying, so am I," Xandra leaned forward.

"All for one, one for all?" Naoki teased.

She glared. "Not in the slightest. I'm not letting this idiot run around without some damage control."

"Are you positive?" Illias asked, looking each in the eye, holding their gaze for as long as they would. "You can't go back after this. No take backs. Once you enter Mirage as a soldier, as a Keeper, you can't just press rewind and ask to go home. There are no redos here."

"Just death," Naoki said.

"Cheery," Theo rolled his eyes. "But yes. I'm serious. I don't want an ooga booga monster taking over my brains, or anybody else's either."

"Me, too," Dexter nodded.

"These things could get my siblings," Paris said quietly. "Not a chance. Not on my watch."

Xandra nodded. "It's the right thing to do. Unfortunately."

Illias smiled, satisfied, maybe even a little proud. "Good. Welcome to the team."

here's naoki's drawing!