Chapter 4:

Flames. Flames everywhere. Anphira opened her eyes and she could feel the extreme heat against her skin. She looked down; she was tied down to a chair completely. She looked forward, and there was a mirror. A tall mirror, not reflecting the image of herself, but of another girl. She looked extremely distressed, screaming and sobbing with nothing she could do but burn, burn, burn. Anphira let out a scream of her own and the woman in the reflection mimicked her. She stared at the mirror, the flames licking Anphira's skin. The woman in the reflection smiled slyly, then the flames consumed her. At that moment, Anphira woke up screaming and crying. She stopped screaming after a few seconds and, although very faint, she heard a chuckle in the distance.

Anphira got up and opened her blinds, and she saw a woman crouching on the roof across from her apartment complex. It... it looked just like the woman in her dream. The reflection. She quickly opened the window, and the woman was so startled that she tumbled face first off the building. Anphira looked down, and suddenly the woman was in her face. She squeaked and fell back onto her floor.

"W-wait... you can see me? Like, you can see me right this second?" asked the woman.

"You... you just fell off that building," Anphira responded, looking a bit shaken up. The woman looked extremely happy while Anphira was sitting here just having a heart attack over what just happened. Then she came to her senses and sorted things out in her head.

"Oh, wait. Nightmare demon, right? I'm guessing you've just been replaying how you died in everyone's heads, or is that something else?" she asked. The woman looked dumbfounded.

"Uh... y-"

"Uh yeah, how did you know that, Miss Know-It-All?" Anphira stated before the woman could finish her sentence, "I'm a Satori. I know what all these magical beings are and everything."

"Ah, makes sense. The name's Match," she said.

Anphira chuckled. "That name's a bit too... ironic, isn't it?" she busted out laughing. Match stood with an angry-looking stare. She raised a freshly-sharpened claw to Anphira's chin.

"Listen here. No one, and I mean no one, makes fun of my name and lives to tell the tale. Got it?" Match growled in a very serious tone. Anphira moved her chin away from the threatening finger.

"Alright, sheesh. No need to get all defensive. Can I go back to sleep now?"

"No, you're the first person that can actually see me! Well, not exactly person... but still!" Match said excitedly.

"Oh my god, please just go and let me sleep in peace. You see where I live, you can come back in the morning and chat all about how lonely you've been," said Anphira, sounding extremely annoyed.

"I, um... yeah, sure. I'll see you tomorrow, I guess," Match said, her excitement dying down. With that, Match jumped out of Anphira's window and bounded off over rooftops. Finally able to lay down in peace, Anphira drifted off to sleep.