I closed my eyes and held on for dear life, digging my fingers into the ground. There was little traction, but I still felt like it was an anchor, keeping me in place. Gaster started to chant, the words growing in volume until they echoed throughout the library.

The chant entered my brain, spinning and building in power and volume. Eventually, when my head felt like it might explode and I was on the brink of screaming, Gaster’s final word chimed over me like a chord.

A chord that grew deeper, my body vibrating with it, as if every one of my cells was bouncing and picking up speed. My body left the ground, the spell sphere the only thing preventing me from drifting off completely.

“Hold on, Mera!” Sam shouted as the shaking got worse. “You’re almost finished.”

Trusting that she knew something I didn’t, I closed my eyes tighter and stopped fearing the unknown. I gave myself into the spell and allowed it to do its job. The vibration increased until my brain was a jumble. I couldn’t remember who I was, where I was, or why I was even there. But I definitely remembered how to scream.

When the pain grew greater than I could manage, screams burst up from my chest and out of my mouth, going on for hours, days, weeks. A pain beyond pain. A broken mind and body. Lines of light shattered through and around me as that shield across my memories was torn to pieces. And the pain went on.

Sobbing.

Screaming.

Lost. Alone.

Shadow… Shadow… Shadow.

Where was Shadow?

My soul raged, in a way I had never felt before, eclipsing even the near complete destruction of the pain in my body. Shadow Beast. He was not my enemy, or the being who had stolen my memories.

He was my… everything.

Flames raged with me now as my power tore free from its cage, filling the sphere and coating my entire body. With this, the pain faded, and eventually, my screams stopped and I was finally at peace.

A gentle touch on my shoulder shook me from the darkness, and as Gaster said my name, I jerked up in a rush, my head pounding like a jackhammer as more memories were freed.

“You made it through,” Gaster said, continuing to keep his voice low, “and your memories will return as soon as your brain heals.”

As a shifter, my brain injury should have healed up in seconds, but, apparently, whatever had been done to me went much deeper than usual. It took at least ten minutes for the pounding to stop, and as I finally lifted my head and looked around, the destruction I saw hit me on a level that only in this moment I could truly understand.