Each night before bed, especially on days that were worse than others, I'd wished to die. I'd wish to never wake up and never have to live my life again. I never wished to become someone else. I never wished to be brought to a different world. All I wanted was to die.

My face might have been prettier than it once was. I might have been wealthier. But this wasn't what I wanted. I didn't want to be someone else. I just wanted to die. I feel as if I stole a happy girl's life and she's been left to manage with my miserable one. 

I stared at the mirror and I patted my pretty face. 

It was so weird to stare at the mirror and see someone unfamiliar. I felt that if I were to reach my hand out to the glass that I could touch this pretty girl, but alas when my fingers touched my face I knew that the face in the mirror was mine. 

"Are you okay Miss Mariella?" I couldn't even begin to imagine the amount of wealth this girl had if her family had their help dressed with such pretty stones. I swear I had never seen such pretty jewelry.

"Yes." I said slowly, unsure if that is truly my name. 

"Are you ready for lunch?" She asked with a frog in her throat.

"Yes." I said with even less confidence. The girl stared at me intensely until I realized I was supposed to get up.

"Are you sure you are okay Miss Mariella?" She asked again, her hand coming to my back as I passed through the doorway.

"My mind is just a bit foggy." I told her as my eyes widened at the wealth buried into the halls. Compared to my house Mariella's room was a mansion. When compared to Mariella's room, the halls were a palace. I could swear I would believe that she was some foreign princess if they had just called me her highness.

"It is alright if you are not alright. With all that has happened I can't imagine how you must feel." I was lucky that she walked a step in front of me, if not she would have seen the sour look on my face. 

Was she supposed to be sad? What happened? I wanted to ask, but I knew I couldn't.

It's so strange being in someone else's body. My body moves when I tell it to just as always, my voice comes when I think of the words to speak, and my thoughts are certainly my own. But my skin is softer than it used to be, my voice sounds different as it rings in my ears, and there is this nagging feeling that I am forgetting something. It's as if her thoughts are trying to say something over mine but she is being drowned out by me. Even my taste buds are different. I would have never enjoyed green beans as much as I do now if I were actually me. I stared into the faces of her family trying to see if their names were buried somewhere in this body's brain.

What is happening? If I go back to sleep will everything go back to normal? Will I return back to my own sorry existence? Do I want to? I do. I don't want to remain here in someone else's body. I wanted my consciousness to die. Not my body.

"Mariella." I thought I had escaped lunch without being noticed by any of her family members. But while I was fleeing back to where I thought her room was, her sister disrupted me. "What's wrong with you? I understand we are all under stress but you didn't say a word at lunch?" I could tell that her sister loved her. It made me hate myself more for having taken over the poor girl's soul. Her eyes studied me in my panic.

"I'm just tired." I fixated my eyes on her as she pondered over my answer quietly. Her silence made my heart pound. 

Her pupils dilated, and her violet irises violated me. "Who are you?" Her words made me take a step back as I tried to catch my heart from falling out of my chest. "You are not my sister." but she simply took it with me. "So who are you?" My eyes frantically sought an answer, as I debated running. She must have seen the thought cross my mind because before my body could process the command, she took hold of my wrist, gouged her nails into my skin, and when I tried to pull away she pushed me into the wall. "I will ask you one more time. Who are you?"

I wasn't sure what magic was in this dreamscape if she was so certain based on one sentence that I wasn't her sister. I couldn't begin to imagine what to say. I was more fearful than I had ever been in my life. I wasn't sure what I was so afraid of. I thought it was actually quite nice that someone could explain this to me. But my body shook. My lips trembled. I could barely stand as she stared down at me. I felt so insignificant, that it didn't matter what I said, that she would do something whether my answer was truthful or not.

My inability to mutter an answer somehow soothed her. "Mariella?" I slowly shook my head, as she let go of my wrist. Her hands came to my cheek and I flinched. She gathered some of my face and dug her fingertips into it. "No…" She pondered as her fingers found and wrapped around my chin like a snake. "Your voice is the same as her." She lifted my chin, then turned my head so that I was looking at the doorway that led to my freedom. "You look like her." She quickly ripped my attention back to her. "And you are even beginning acting like her… But you are not her." She said as she freed me. "What do you want? Who are you? Where is Mariella?" 

"I don't know." My voice finally broke through. "I don't know anything, really." I said sheepishly. I could still feel her hand on my face. It burned while she suffocated me with the absence of space in between us. 

She still leered over me as if I were a pesky rat. "You do not even know who you are?" She was unwilling to budge.

"I-i know that…" I said quickly.

"Who are you then?" Her hand returned to my wrist.

"Suki Quinn." I didn't hesitate to answer.

"And what do you want?" 

"I don't want anything!" I possibly said too loud. "I just want to go home." I said quieter as I coward as far into the wall that I could go.

She stared at me; discerned whether I was lying or not before taking a step back as she let go of my arm. "How did you get here?" 

"I don't know." I muttered

"What do you know?" Her patience seemed cut thin. 

"I went to sleep and I woke up here."

"Is that all? Really?" It felt as if she were calling me stupid in seven different languages that I didn't understand. I nodded as her attention fell over her shoulder. "Come with. We shouldn't be discussing this here." She said, as she took my wrist, dragging down the hall and into a room that had only housed two couches and a coffee table. It was richly decorated. A large portrait of a lady sat above an unlit fireplace. I wasn't sure what the room was supposed to be.

"Where do you come from?"

"American." I was unaware if the word meant anything to her.

It was obvious she didn't understand it as she waved away my answer. "Do you know where my sister is?"

"No…" I answered slowly. "Does this happen often here?"

"No."

"Has this happened to you before?"

"No." She answered with a flare in her words. For someone who is in a situation as confusing as mine, Mariella's sister seemed almost unbothered. 

"Then how are you so calm! Are you not worried about your sister?" I must have gotten too loud for her liking as her hand quickly came to cover my mouth.

"Would you quit yelling? For Heaven's sake, who raised you?" Her words mute me as I recall my parents. "I am worried about my sister, but my worry won't make her come back. It's best not to fret in a situation like this."

"Is magic a thing here?"

"No. Magic is just fantasy." Her answer only made me feel worse. If there was no magic here I was sure I was stuck. She could see the inkling of sadness that burdened me as her hand came to comfort the same place she had previously dug her nails into. "Suki." She said softly. "For now you should get used to living as my sister." She brought both my hands into her's. "I can help you. I know my sister very well. I will share with you things I know, but there are of course things about my sister she kept secret from me."

"Was she a secretive person?"

"That isn't a very good way to explain it." Her violet eyes parted from me for a moment as she gently freed my hands. "Everyone has their secret's Suki. I imagine you do too."