"You don't seem like the gullible type to me." His paw adjusted the loose, oversized collar around his neck and shoulder.

"Huh?!" she squeaked. She put her hands down on the soft ground and pushed herself up as quickly as she could. A few locks of hair fell over her shoulder.

What is this?

"I demand the right to know who you are!"

His grin matched the half-crescent markings beneath his eyes. "Name's Xalei. I'm–"

She snorted, her nostrils flaring up in the act. "Of course, you talk. Everything here talks!"

"You seem reall–"

Chalala's obnoxious laughter continued. "This is like one of those books I've read. I have my own little animal sidekick. How ludicrous! It's so ludicrous that it's laughable!"

He kept his grin, mildly puzzled. "You sure are taking this well. Color me surprised, but usually, humans are sissier around these parts."

Her laughter only got louder and, somehow, more obnoxious. "Sissier? That's funny. Me? Sissy?"

She poked the button nose on his purple-furred face. One corner of her mouth curled up in a devious smirk. "You're just a cute wittle bunny wabbit. Why would I be scared of you?"

His facial expression didn't match the irksome movement of his paw as he lightly moved her finger away.

"Not sayin' that at all!" he chimed. "As a matter of fact, you not being scared makes things easier for me."

Blatantly ignoring him, she asked, "Do you know who I am?" She tried to make her voice as captivating as possible. "Chalala Soria. How sensorial for someone like you to make my acquaintance."

"Wow. You don't say!" His tone was laced with hidden sarcasm. Energetically, he patted his paws together as if he were dusting them off. "Well, well, well, Chalala. Today–"

"And"–she interjected, running her teeth along the inner part of her bottom lip–"you should feel privileged that I'm speaking with you."

Xalei's toothy grin shrunk. "I'm feeling that now. What an honor! And do I have something great to tell–"

"I knew it." She flicked her wrist backward. "Of course, in dreams of my own imagining, even the weirdest of creatures can see my superiority. I have that effect."

"Yeah, yeah. I know you do. So—"

As he was talking, he watched her stand up in a woozy way. The snobby girl didn't know when to stop rambling.

"Wow." She stumbled along, barely able to remain standing. "This dream is really realistic! Ah. That must be it. I'm lucid dreaming! It's no wonder that I could feel things that aren't there."

Xalei heavily sighed, placing his paw on his face while he shook his head. Floating after her, he caught up by her side. "What's the rush? Can't you stay and chat?"

"Nonsense," she said without looking at him. "As fun as this has been, I must get back to Lucifer. It's time for me to wake up."

While she was sauntering, he drifted in front of her to grab her attention.

"Why do you want to see the devil so badly?" he asked, following up with a teasing remark. "Tough luck. You're in the wrong place to see that bogeyman."

"Lucifer isn't the devil!" She scoffed. "I would expect the floating bunny rabbit in my head to know such things, but I guess that's expecting too much. Lucifer is my emu."

She touched the pads of her fingers to her lips. "My beloved Lucifer is so cute. Especially when I dress him up in frilly pink outfits and have tea parties with him. He quite enjoys eating those little seeds I leave out."

Xalei opened his mouth only to close it again due to Chalala's gushing.

She did a twirl and clasped her hands at her chest like a love-sick princess. "He does whatever I want. That's how all people should be. He's not a person, but if we're talking about having heart, he's more human than most people."

"Great." He bypassed a branch constructed of yarn and googly eyes. "I bet he sure loves all of that. Now, as I was saying–"

"Oh, and he gives the best hugs, Lucifer does." Her steps started to look more like dance moves as she beamed. "I wrap my arms around him and he puts his neck down like he's embracing me. I think such kindness is too much for a creature without a soul, so I bet I'll see my best friend even after I die. Now how do I make him pop into my dream?"

As Chalala tried to make her beloved Lucifer appear, they strolled past banana hammocks with an unpeeled banana that had a face carved into it. A peel was tucking it in.

What was surprising that was Xalei let her go on and on and on. She was quite the chatterbox. Eventually, he had an opening to speak.

"Hate to break it to you, Chickadee," he started. "You ain't gonna see your little emu friend while you're here. You can't just make him appear in front of you."

"Huh?!"

She had been in front of him, so she whipped around to face him. Utter betrayal was written all over her face.

"Not going to see him?!" she yelled. "What are you talking about? You can't tell me what to do! This is my dream!"

"Now, slow down," he insisted. "There's a way to see him."

Chalala jeered. "Well? Out with it."

"First things first!" Xalei chimed, his tone remained animated. "You seem like a smart lady. Your stories about your barn animal have me moved! In order for you to see him again, you must listen to me without you interru–"

"Barn animal?" She tilted her head so quickly it was a wonder her neck didn't break. "I'll have you know, Lucifer is no barn animal. He is a refined gentleman."

"Right! I'm sure he is," he acknowledged. "So, you need to listen to me."

That earned a scoff out of her. She crossed her arms and leaned to one side. "And whyyyyy should I listen to you? You're just a dream character. You can't keep me trapped here."

She tapped her chin in thought before returning that hand to its position in her crossed arms. "You know what I think? I think you need to take a chill pill. Maybe have some of what I had. Being unconscious makes it hard to notice the stick up your butt."

"Trapped? You have it all wrong." He managed to remain composed, speaking with confidence despite her attitude, which was nothing short of miraculous considering how irritated he could have been. "If I'm just a dream character, wouldn't you have control of your dream if you were lucid dreaming?"

She opened her mouth to say something, but she quickly snapped it shut again when she realized she didn't have a good comeback to that. She turned her back to him once more, making sure to give her hair a dramatic flip in the process. She threw a nice huff in there for further effect.

"I'll just keep walking then! And you'll keep following me!" she announced.

Without looking to see if he followed, she started to walk on. She didn't stop until she was forced to due to her foot sinking into some sort of hole in the ground.

She stared down at the hole. Then back at Xalei. Then at the hole again. Then Xalei again.

Spit flew from her lips as she tried to hold back a laugh. Laughter ensued anyway, and she wiped her mouth as though the spit part had never happened. "I'm stuck."

Xalei only "tsk'd" and shook his head. "You've got yourself in a bad bind."

That caused her expression to drastically change. "What do you mean?!"

"You'll see. Catch up with you in a bit." Xalei did a salute wave while he grinned.

She glared up at him through her bangs before huffing. Her eyes once again fell upon the hole her foot was in. She gave her leg a good tug, but instead of coming free, the ground started to crumble away. She wouldn't have been alarmed if not for the fact that there was a lack of soil beneath the top layer. All that awaited was a pitch-black void. Something wrapped around her ankle and tugged, leaving her no time to scream as she got swiftly pulled beneath the ground's surface and into the abyss.

Her body flipped in the air until her back was facing downward. That was when she got a look at what had pulled her down. A flower stem had wrapped itself tightly around her ankle. The flower itself resembled a dark burgundy pom-pom with a strikingly yellow center. She tried to adjust her position enough to remove the stem, but maneuvering proved to be challenging. A gasp escaped her lips as the stem unexpectedly snapped in half. In an instant, the sensation of falling intensified as if gravity had intensified its pull.

The sound of screeching caused her ears to feel as though they split. She spotted a glint in the darkness atop her. Barely managing to cross her arms in front of her face, a swarm of dark purple bats flew at her.

Oddly enough, she could feel the wind from their wings on her face, even felt their leathery skin hit against her smooth skin. She screamed and flailed, causing her to fall right into a sideways rainbow, feeling the cool mist in her throat. The wind left her lungs when she landed on the ground. The ground, for some reason, wasn't hard enough to hurt her, but the shock of the ordeal left her breathless. Something soft shifted beneath her. She sat up and managed to see long, white feathers on the ground where she had landed.

The sky above her displayed an unnatural shade of bright blue. In the distance, she spotted an inordinate display that she could only guess was a playground. The shapes making up the structure had enough distortion to be uncanny. However, this alone did not deter her. Nor did the lifeless, expressionless faces on it that seemed to follow her every move with their eyes of nothingness.

It would have made any normal person frightened, but all Chalala felt was equilibrium and bliss. Something about the unsettling nature of the scene—of something truly terrifying—brought her a sense of belonging. Her open-mouthed smile turned to a release of laughter as she ran toward the playground. She felt like a kid again, naïve and understanding of what it meant to be free. Taking a seat on one of the swings, she wrapped her fingers tightly around the chains. Kicking herself off the ground, she suddenly found herself soaring through the air. Like any child discovering true freedom, she allowed herself to fly off the seat and into the open air. Instead of hitting the ground, she seemed to flip endlessly into the open air and blue sky in a beautiful tangle of limbs and soft hair.

Finally, she landed on a trampoline in the sky, bouncing as her back hit the surface. Her laughter became uncontrollable at that point, taking over her entire body and heart with pure ecstasy. When she opened her eyes, she caught sight of a neat row of silver bells hanging from the air. Instantly captivated by their charm, she knew that she had to reach them somehow. She stood up and grabbed a fistful of the trampoline net. She did the same with her other hand, and then she lifted her foot up, feeling something solid materialize beneath it as a foothold. Looking down, she saw that another one of those burgundy flowers was beneath her foot. She continued to climb upward, and with each step, another flower materialized to aid in her journey.

Once at the top, she struggled to balance herself on top of the net. Without giving it a second thought, she leaped into the air and gripped the clapper tightly in her hands. The momentum caused her to swing back and forth, and she felt on top of the world. She was so sure she would never fall. So sure that if she looked down, she would see the world beneath her feet.

"Everything is beneath me," she said breathily, feeling the rise and fall of her chest speed up as her mouth set into a wide circulating smile into the endless expanse of the sky.

Before she reached out to grab the next bell, she looked down to confirm that the world really was beneath her. Instead of finding what she expected, there lay something entirely different.

A room appeared that wasn't there before if it could even be called a room. No roof protected it. It had four open walls directly below her with people inside.

"I haven't other people since this crazy thing started!" Chalala spoke aloud.

After saying that, the walls started to slowly close in on said people. Chalala's eyes widened, and she nearly lost her grip on the bell. The screams of the people below got cut off as the walls collected them all in one place and smashed them together. The crack of bones floated up to reach Chalala's ears. The sound of gargling accompanied it as the people became choked on their own blood. She didn't try to suppress the whimper that rose in her throat. She looked behind her, but the trampoline had disappeared. The only way was to go forward.

"No, no..." she practically hissed under her breath. Her hands shook, making it difficult to grab the next clapper.

When she got onto the next bell, she looked down again to make sure that she was safe. Instead, she saw that the room had moved to be directly underneath her.

It's moving with me?

Her sweaty hands made it hard to keep her grip, feeling herself sliding. She took a stuttering breath before finally crying out, "Help!"

I know this is a dream, but it's still scary! It feels so real!

"Help! I'm falling!"

"Don't be silly. You're not falling!"

Needless to say, Chalala's dangling feet barely grazed the ground. Looking directly toward the source, she noticed someone–a lady.