Snatcher barely realized when the carriage stopped. He was too shocked to think clearly, and had been that way for the whole ride to the manor. She was there! And she saw him! A feeling of angst grew inside of him, just remembering her face, those blue eyes that met his...

He couldn't do this. He had said this many times before, sure, but now he just knew he couldn't handle that. He was bound to be found out! He was incapable of keeping an impassive face just because he caught a glimpse of her! What would it be like to stand just in front of her again? There was no way he wasn't going to die before night came.

The one thing that woke him up from his thoughts was when the door opened, revealing a very familiar face: the one who belonged to the butler of the manor. Snatcher's blood ran cold at the sight of him. He had the exact same face as the one he remembered: he was a man in his late forties, with a very straight posture. Simeon, his name was Simeon. He had salt and pepper hair, which used to be brown when he was younger. The servant's face was severe and he always had a very rigorous attitude about everything. Yet, he remained nice to the members of the royal family. He was wearing a very elaborate black uniform, just like the one from the shade's memories. The only coloured thing in his outfit was his tie, which was red.

-"Prince Alistel ?" He asked, bewildered to see him home at this time of the year. The ghost had to grit his teeth to not react by the sound of his name. Though he really had to get used to it, this was getting ridiculous.

-"Hello there..." He replied, punching himself mentally. Way to go, completely natural! As if this was a way for a prince to talk! The butler remained unmoving for a few seconds, confused by the ghost's salutation. He quickly and politely replaced his puzzlement with a concerned look :

-"The driver told me you were injured. May I help you go inside? I'll help you go to your bedroom, where you'll be able to stay and rest until the doctor arrives.

-Perfect," answered Snatcher, trying his best to play his role, "Thank you, Simeon." He had a slight doubt: did he use to call him that way? Or did he use a nickname of any sort? He didn't think so but after so many years being dead, he couldn't be completely sure. His servant didn't seem to react to his name, which reassured Snatcher a bit. At least, he was happy the other didn't ask about his early return, perhaps not wanting to be rude.

-"You're welcome, my Prince." He held out his arm for the ghost to take and then helped him to get out of the carriage. He called out one of the maids in the manor, telling her to pay the driver while he escorted the shade to his bedroom.

If it wasn't for the help of Simeon helping him to walk, Snatcher would simply be paralyzed in front of the manor. This place reeked evilness. He had been imprisoned here... He had died here! He wanted nothing more just to run without ever looking back, fleeing this place that held so many horrifying memories. This place even used to haunt him as a ghost and now he had to go inside it: truly, there had to be some kind of supreme being behind all of this, making fun of his situation. This had to be a punishment for something he did, because there was absolutely no way anyone deserved this, unless they enraged a god. Which he didn't remember doing, but a lot of things did happen after his death so he couldn't be perfectly sure. Though, that didn't change anything: he still didn't want to go in there.

He stopped, feeling his breath getting stuck in his lungs. His heart started to beat fast, way too fast. He was panicking and this wasn't good. His head began to spin and suddenly, everything became foggy around him. He heard Simeon call his name, his awful name, but it was so distant. All he could feel at that moment was his breathing becoming more and more erratic, the pounding of his heart in his chest, and the atrocious pain in his legs, which hadn't really stopped.

How was he still standing up? He closed his eyes for an instant and suddenly, when he reopened them, he was on the ground. His mind was cloudy and he didn't understand what was happening around him. His chest was going up and down rapidly. Simeon's silhouette appeared in the corner of his vision, with other people he couldn't recognize yet. Was it normal for a human to only see blurred things? He guessed not. His mind couldn't think and the fear he felt inside of him grew, grew, grew. It was too much: first, waking up in a human body, learning that this body used to be his, discovering an unfrozen Subcon Village... Then meeting people who were supposed to be dead, seeing Vanessa, and now this? He couldn't take it anymore, he couldn't, everything hurt, it was too much, too much for him to handle.

The last resisting part of his consciousness gave up and slowly, while he heard people panicking around him, he passed out.

Once someone was dead, they would remain on Earth either as a dweller or as a ghost, if their soul didn't reach the Beyond where it was supposed to go in the first place. Though, coming back as a ghost was much more unusual. To do so, one had to feel intense emotions before dying, as if they were refusing to die. Their soul would then stay in the mortal plane for eternity, unable to reach the Other Side.

Ghosts never slept. They didn't need to anymore, just as they lacked the need to eat. Most senses became dull, barely noticeable. Some spirits could still feel sensations, however, these tended to be linked to the way they perished.

If ghosts couldn't sleep, therefore they didn't dream. Snatcher hadn't dreamed for centuries and that's why he realized immediately that was he was seeing wasn't real. It felt too much... Ethereal.

He was in a black void, completely empty and seemingly infinite. What struck him the most was the fact that he had regained his spectral body. He didn't have legs and couldn't feel them anymore, which was very reassuring. He probably was the only person in the world able to say this, but not having legs anymore was a huge relief. Though, he knew deep inside that this was only an illusion. It was fake.

Snatcher would bet his afterlife on the fact that his meat sack of a body had to be sleeping, even though he didn't remember going to bed. Most of his memories were fuzzy and searching for his missing ones only resulted in a coming headache. Oh, no, not this again... He had much enough of that earlier.

His thoughts seemed to have influenced the progression of his dream, as the black void around him started to shift into something else. Colours appeared like paint smudges on an empty canvas. Purple was the most dominant one of them and soon, Snatcher guessed what his dream was recreating: it was Subcon Forest, the one he was familiar with as a ghost. It didn't take long for the dream to finish reconstructing the place. The spirit could recognize every part of it, every corner of his kingdom. If Snatcher knew very well that what he was seeing wasn't real, he couldn't deny the enormous amount of comfort he felt thanks to that. All those trees, the spiders hanging from the trees, the nooses, the swamp, his minions running for their life...

He stopped his train of thoughts instantly: "What ?" The ghost could see his minions through the foliages of the trees. Why? What were they fleeing? Even though this was only a dream, an alarm sound went off in his head, as he felt the urge to go and help them. He had to find the threat that was putting every one of his subjects in danger and eliminate it right away. He flew over the forest, searching for the problem. His eyes looked in every direction, fixed on each potential hiding spot for someone or something. He seldom flew this fast but this was an emergency. If he had a heart in this dream, it would be beating in a very quick rhythm, and he would be short-winded. Fortunately, he didn't.

"Where are you? What are you ?" He wondered with anger and a growing nervousness. Who or what could be possibly stupid enough to try and attack his kingdom? It didn't matter, as the cause was to die as soon as Snatcher found it.

However, just as he was about to go lower in order to inspect the forest with further attention, a gigantic smudge of white appeared in his vision. It looked like an explosion, but with no sound. It emitted a very strong light that blinded the shade. He tried to put his hand in front of his eyes to protect them, yet it remained too intense for him. The explosion was far away in the forest, though it widened in only a few seconds and it was coming right at him.

"Oh no..." He didn't know what it was or what caused it, however, he just knew that it was something bad, something dangerous, even for him. Snatcher could only be hurt in very specific situations and he was sure it was one of them. Could a ghost die again...? He didn't even know! What he did know, though, was that he had to flee, now.

Without losing any more seconds, he turned around, ready to fly again. He had to find his minions and bring them to safety, quickly. As he was unable to fight whatever that whitish light was, saving his minions was his top priority. He might tell to his victims that he didn't care about them, but it was far from the truth if he had to be completely honest.

He flew lower, just above the foliages. He looked through it, trying to find any of them, in vain. Behind him, the light was coming closer and closer. It was approaching much faster than before and soon, the ghost realized he was too slow and wouldn't be able to flee very long at this pace. Panic grew inside of him, as the light was approaching him, no matter how hard he tried to speed up. What was happening? What was that?

And all of a sudden, everything around him turned white, fully white. Snatcher came to an abrupt stop, as he felt something happening to him. His fear increased as he could feel his body changing, as if parts of him were taken away from him, only to be replaced by ones that weren't his. It all happened in a few seconds, but it lasted far, far more to Snatcher. It wasn't painful, yet it remained extremely horrid. He looked down at himself and gasped, dread settling over him: he was back in his human body. He blinked and everything around him shifted again. New smudges of paint started to appear out of nowhere, colouring the white void that had engulfed him. This time, green and light blue were the main colours, along with tints of brown. Soon, the ghost recognized the forest once again, though it was the one he woke up in. The one from his past.

He turned his head to search for any clue. Was it a recreation of what had happened? Was the light the one he saw before waking up as a human? Was he seeing what he had forgotten? There were so many questions...

However, just as he was about to fly away to explore, his body refused to move. The shade looked at himself and then it hit him. He became a human... And humans didn't fly like ghosts could. As soon as he realized that, he felt gravity calling his body back on the ground. It was like the floor beneath his feet had just collapsed, and now he falling, falling, and falling into the trees under him. And then, everything went black again.

His eyes opened, as he struggled to catch his breath again. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest and his body was hot. Sweat beaded on his forehead. Did he just have a nightmare? Him? He wondered for a few moments. His first dream as a human again, and it was a nightmare... He definitely never wanted to experience that again. At least, being dead had its perks, like being immune to that kind of things... Oh, how he missed being dead so much. Though, if this dream was true... Then falling on the ground like he did would certainly explain why everything hurt so bad, and why walking had been so difficult. What a great idea that was, floating above the trees... Well, at least he landed on them rather than the hard ground waiting for him. It probably saved him from death... And as much as wanted to be back as a spirit, he was sure that dying like this would only bring his soul to the Beyond, where he didn't want it to go.

The ghost then shook his head, pulling himself together. The first thing he noticed was the fact that he was laying down on a comfortable surface, wrapped in something soft. Confusion spread on the shade's face as he slowly looked at his surroundings, trying to understand where he was and what had happened. His heart skipped a beat the instant he recognized the room he was in: it was his old bedroom, the one he had when he lived in the manor. He was lying in his bed. Little by little, he regained his previous memories: he really had lost consciousness. Great. Now everyone knew something was going on. He clenched his teeth, annoyed at himself and at that stupid body. A frustrated sigh escaped from his lips. He skimmed the red sheets absent-mindedly with his hands, feeling the delicate texture of the fabric under his fingers. Being able to experience that kind of things again... Was nice. As much as he wanted to return to his ghostly form, he couldn't deny how good it felt to really touch something for once.

The walls were purple, with vertical vine patterns. The bottom part of the walls was made out of carved wood. The bedroom was beautifully decorated, which wasn't really surprising, as Snatcher used to be a prince when he was alive. Even if Subcon Village wasn't very big, its inhabitants respected the royal family tremendously.

On the shade's left was hanged the painting of a beach, possibly made by a famous painter, but he didn't linger very long on that thought. Next to it was a luxurious wardrobe, visibly made out of precious wood. In front of his bed was a window and the ghost realized that the sun was already setting. Did he remain asleep that long? It was still in the afternoon when he had arrived at the manor!

-"Stupid fleshy body..." He muttered, clenching his fists on the bedcovers. Being alive was the worst!

As soon as that thought formed in his mind, a noise on his right startled him :

-"Mhmm..." The shade's body froze in horror, as he turned his head very slowly towards the direction of the sound he just heard. Deep down, he knew what it was, but he just wanted to refuse this possibility. However, when his eyes met blonde hair lying next to him, he instantly felt a sinking feeling in his stomach.

Vanessa had kneeled beside the bed, her head lying on the mattress. Her eyes were closed and she was breathing calmly, which largely contrasted with Snatcher's reaction. He couldn't help but stare at her, not daring to move an inch. Was she... Sleeping? Did she hear him? But more importantly... Did she remember him the same as he did?

He then noticed he was trembling. He couldn't move, he was just... Frozen in fear. The woman who had not only locked him up but murdered him was right next to him, apparently sleeping peacefully. He suddenly felt very sick just looking at her. Bright and horrible flashbacks kept appearing in his mind, almost blinding him from the present. He was hyperventilating, absolutely terrified. There was no way he could face her. Snatcher knew what he could do and what he couldn't. That was part of the latter category, without any doubt.

Slowly, very slowly, the ghost tried to get out of the bed from the other side. He just wanted to get away from her, now. The very idea of being in the same room as her, without any power to fight back if she tried something... Was frightening. He couldn't take the risk.

He almost got his left foot out of the covers when he heard the bed shifting on his right. His heart sank in his chest as dread settled over him. He knew what it was, he knew it, yet he couldn't help but pray any god ready to listen to him. He silently asked them to get him out of this awful situation. Though, his prayers remained unanswered and soon, a sweet and gentle voice greeted him :

-"Alistel ?"

He turned his head in her direction, unable to breathe as his eyes locked on hers. She was smiling warmly and before he was able to say or do anything, she pounced on him, locking him in a tight embrace. To Snatcher, it felt like a bucket full of cold water was poured on his already frozen body.

-"You came back !" She said against him, squeezing his body even more: "I missed you so much !"

The ghost remained completely still, paralysed by fear.

He was so, so going to die. Again.